For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
In loving memory of Donald Gordon (1930 – 2016)
Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,
the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back
from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere
except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle
of unobservable mysteries – roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This
I try to remember when time’s measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn
flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay – how everything lives, shifting
from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.
Bokeh leaf
ICM abstract
Dreamlike walk in the woods
How many ways are there to capture autumn? Double exposures, ICM, reflections, macros, film, polaroids…I don’t know but as many as there are photographers, I guess.
What I am sure about is that for me the joy is in trying to express my abiding love for this season through my images. And to interpret its many moods — its energy, its stillness, its melancholy, its whimsy. I’m crazy for all of it.
When I want to feast on the lovely and unique visions of others, I delight in the images of my sister photographers in the Focusing on Life Flickr pool.
I know I am in the company of kindred spirits when I soak up the beauty of their photographs and gasp at their oh-so-particular ways of seeing their world.
One of the FOL collective, Leigh Love, shares a glorious Ode to October in words and images that you won’t want to miss. While you’re there, why not enter their giveaway? It’s on until October 4.
If you’re an autumn enthusiast like me, do you have a favorite fall feeling or activity? Or do you just love it all?