a misty morning between the trees

my new friend Bill (and sole follower) recently suggested that i begin posting some of my work here on my nascent blog.  i will begin by posting just this one image.  i took it in my backyard early on a foggy morning.  i think i was still in my pajamas.  i saw the fog.  i saw the sun beginning to break through the mist.  i pulled on shoes, grabbed my camera and raced out the back door.  i was lost in the fog for several hours and three rolls of black and white film.  i would have stayed forever, but i ran out of film.

in the ten years that i have been seriously practicing photography, i have discovered that most of my best images come from places i return to over and over again... like my simple backyard.  because it is comfortable, familiar territory, i look deeper, and i find i go beyond the surface of things with greater ease.  i am relaxed.  i feel safe.   and i can move rather smoothly into the photographer's zone.  what my friend Bill calls the state of "listening with your eyes."  i think that's a perfect description.  your senses are heightened and you are attuned to all that is around you.  you see new things.  you feel new sensations.  everything almost tingles and glows. 

that is why i love photographing my world so very much... it always takes me to a new place, even when i'm just standing in my old, humdrum backyard.  that's magical.