Simple Things

March 18, 2021

“Simple things have profound affect on us, if we just give ourselves over to them.”
-Joel Meyerowitz

I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I’ve been borderline obsessed with this empty waterpark for several months now. I photographed it one cloudy day back at the end of summer, when it so perfectly summed up the dark and empty feeling that the pandemic had brought; a place I’d been used to seeing packed with people and laughter, instead a sea of empty chairs. I photographed it in the snow as well, when the sun had already set back behind the winter gray sky. Somehow it was less strange to see it snow covered in the late evening light than it was empty in the summer.

Now it’s almost spring; the days are getting longer and warmer. And the park feels even emptier than the times before. All of the chairs are put away, and viewing it in the harsh midday sun makes all of the colors wash into beautiful pastel tones. Looking at it now feels almost peaceful.

Perhaps it’s the beauty of removing the extraneous. As so much of this past year has been about cutting out all that doesn't matter, everything but the essentials, maybe it’s seeing this place stripped so bare that resonates. Maybe that’s why the emptier it gets, the more beautiful it seems to me.

You're Allowed to Change Your Mind

March 9, 2021

If you’ve followed this blog for very long or visited my digital meadow, then you know I have a bit of a fraught relationship with social media. On the one hand, it feels like a necessary tool to grow my business and connect to some of the people and things I enjoy. On the other it’s an echo chamber of ideas that, I think when you aren’t careful, can stifle creativity and growth. One of my biggest complaints has always been the feeling that I had to stick to being one type of photographer making one type of image, since the algorithm punishes deviations.

I’ve been reading Austin Kleon’s book Keep Going, a fun little book I highly recommend, which lays out ten ways to stay creative in good times and bad (though I honestly believe they can all be applied to life in general.) My favorite is number 7: You Are Allowed to Change Your Mind. In this chapter I found the following quote, which perfectly sums up my frustrations:

“Social media has turned us all into politicians. And brands. Everyone is supposed to be a brand now, and the worst thing in the world is to be off-brand. But to be on brand is to be 100 percent certain of who you are and what you do, and certainty, in art and life, is not only completely overrated, it is also a roadblock to discovery.”

And it’s true. Why are we so afraid of change? I can’t imagine a life where everyone is the same all the time and no one changes, myself included. Nor do I want to live a life where change and growth are discouraged. I like to think that as we learn new information, we experience something we hadn’t before, or we’re just ready to move into the next phase in the metamorphosis of becoming better human beings, that we can - and should - embrace change, in ourselves and in each other.

And I would hope that this can be applied to creativity as well. Growing creatively requires constant reexamining and reevaluation. It requires stretching out and doing something new. And maybe even changing your mind about something. These pictures for example are images that five or six years ago I’m not sure I would have made. Perhaps if I’d been in the right place at the right time. But I wouldn’t have set out with the intention to make them. And even as recently as this time last year I wouldn't have felt like I could share them, because they’re too different; they’re too off-brand.

But I like them. And I like that they represent trying something a little different.

So here’s to changing our minds, and to the possibility of growth that comes along with it. In fact, here’s my challenge to each of you: Find something in your life the boundaries of which you haven’t pushed in a while. Maybe it’s a creative endeavor, the genre of music you listen to, or maybe even a political or religious idea. And then find a way to push that boundary. Make a piece of art you usually wouldn’t, listen to an album you’ve written off as not for you, or have a conversation with someone who holds a different opinion. And open up to the possibility that you might just change your mind. And it might just change you for the better.

PS - And when you’re done I’d love to hear about it! As always, you can write me here!

Snow Fun

February 28, 2021

I wrote recently on one of the pages of my digital meadow that I’ve always admired the artists and photographers who can make the mundane beautiful. I see images of things that are so plain and ordinary, banal even. Images of things that I know I would look at and have a hard time seeing the picture. And yet, the images are beautiful, and even captivating. It’s easy to want to edit out the unattractive or the less ideal. But in truth, what’s beautiful about life is all of its messiness. I’m trying to let go of that need for perfection.

As the weather here has been warming this week and there is almost no trace left of the frosty weather now (hopefully) behind us, I thought I would post some of the images I made over the last few weeks. These were all an attempt at just capturing life in the moment and as it happened, ignoring the things that might otherwise keep me from making the picture. And focusing on what was in front of me. Sometimes I noticed the way the ice made our juniper look like it was coated with sugar crystals. Others it was simply the way the snow clung to the ivy growing up the house by the window of my reading chair. And of course, there were lots of playful moments to capture too.