What does nature photography mean to me? Simply being alone in nature. It’s not being outside standing at a metal railing with five hundred other people waiting for Old Faithful to burst her tower of steam right on schedule or hiking down a trail in the Smokies looking at the back of another stranger while another stranger yet is at my heels polluting the peaceful air jag jawing on the phone about the wonderful waterslide back at their motel.
Most of our wonderful icons are set up for easy access for all to see and the tradeoff for a guy like me is to see them along side the masses that too go there to see what it is they’ve heard so much about. I can understand this, after all it’s mine, it’s ours. I can be around others while outside in nature and share the view, but to fully enjoy it I must be alone. I’m sure I’m not the only curmudgeon in the world that feels this way. When I get out in the woods alone and start walking along a path a certain feeling of peace comes over me. I feel connected with something far greater than I do any other time and my senses become ultra-sensitive to all the sights, sounds and smell that surround me. I’m a very impatient man yet once I unfold the legs of my tripod and take my lens cap off, being in a hurry is the last thing on my mind. I can’t be rushed and this state of euphoria can’t be interrupted by a group of passerby’s. The great author Henry David Thoreau once said “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than to be crowded on a velvet cushion." I understand what he is saying here. This isn’t greed or selfishness but more of a state of spirituality and connection with the energy around him. This is the same experience I feel.
Since I’ve got involved with photography I’ve been sucked into the simplicity yet complicated world around us. The smallest thing can intrigue me and capture my attention. I truly can absorb as much awe inspiring gratitude for a tiny drop of water off the tip of a leaf as most people can get from the mighty Niagara Falls. A tiny tree frog gives me more companionship and intrigue than any tour through a museum of natural history and the mud under my feet I wouldn’t trade for the greenest fertilized grass at any prestigious country club.
I guess to answer my question that started this blog is this: photography for me is less about getting that perfect photograph but about being out in the elements feeling a certain connection with nature. Feeling the wind, being serenaded to by the birds, and exploring the canvas that unfolds in front of me with every step I take.
The following photographs are from a trip to South Carolina in late summer. The family and I stopped in Tennessee to stay overnight about thirty minutes outside the entrance of Smoky Mountain National Park. The crowds that afternoon were thick, self-centered and non-courteous to say the list. However that next morning about 4:00 am I awakened with energy and excitement, so I grabbed some breakfast at the Golden Arches and headed for the park alone. For the next several hours I had the entire park to myself or so it seemed. I’m sure there were other like me out there but our paths never crossed. I was rewarded by my early adventure with wonderful photo opportunities and by that spiritual connection I get when I’m alone in nature.
It was then when I finally realized what nature photography means to me. It never was about the photographs but about discovery of somthing far greater.
"Sometimes the best way to figure out who you are is
to get to that place where you don't have to be anything else."
~Levis Ad~
to get to that place where you don't have to be anything else."
~Levis Ad~
