Posts from the ‘Thoughts and Rages’ Category
Today I Am Asking Why???
I just was reading a new book on my Kindle called “The Creative Life in Photography” by Brooks Jensen. This book has got me thinking about why I am doing the type of photography I am doing. I mean really digging deep into why I am photographing horses, dogs, nature etc.. Sure I am always in the pursuit of learning more and perfecting my craft, but why? What is it I am trying to accomplish by photographing my subjects?
I sat in silence to really dig deep. Here is what came to me. Since I was small I have been attracted to the animal kingdom. I had an imaginary farm in my head at age three, I still can recall every detail of this farm. As I grew up I was continuously bringing home lost dogs, kittens, rabbits, baby birds, turtles and mice I drove my parents crazy with these creatures I wanted to have live with us. So there started the root of my interest.
But today after many years of living (59 to be exact) I am asking the question why? What is it about animals and nature that has dominated the decisions I make not only to photograph but how I live my life.
I am now starting to ask why do I want to photograph animals and nature? Why must I live near them. Why horses and particularly draft horses, why dogs, why regular dogs and not the beautiful show dogs, why nature, not the landscapes you travel to but the ones I stumble upon. Not just flowers but weather.
All In A Days Work
Book Store Dog
Frost Bite
This is the question I am asking myself today, why?
It never hurts to stop in your life and ask why you are doing what you are doing. It will bring you to a spot to examine your life before you make choices that may lead you away from yourself rather than toward who you really are.
So here are some answers to my why. Because animals let us into their world if we just ask rather than insist. Because the draft horse can overpower us but chooses not to. Because nature can inspire and destroy us all in the same day. Because the relationship is more important than the activity. Because the eyes speak and beauty inspires.
I have a feeling I still need to dig a bit deeper, but a least I know why I photograph what I do. Now I need to ask what I will create with my photography and why.
What is your why?
Snow & Frustration
A tip of a branch
I am sure when you read this title and if you have live in an area where you have gotten snow lately you think I am going to talk about how frustrating it is dealing with the snow. Driving in it, shoveling it, scrapping windows,salted roads, dirty cars etc.. I am afraid you would be wrong. Although I have to deal with those frustrations like everyone else when it snows, my frustration comes from the fact that it seems to snow on days that I have other commitments and appointments that prevent me from spending hours photographing the beauty just outside my door.
Today is such a day. It snowed here in Littleton, Colorado about 8 inches and everything looks white and soft and beautiful. But I have appointments and things I must do and I am so frustrated because it has happened on a day when I am booked with work that can not be rescheduled. Today is such an opportunity sent by nature and for someone like me who just loves snow.
It is my hope that it will snow all day and maybe late this afternoon I can get out and explore and create the beauty of this wonderful gift from nature.
But until then I just will get ready for my appointments and feel the frustration.
Here are some previous photographs I have taken on a snow day.
Milk weed in the son
- Red barn on a snowy day
Where Do You Come From?
I have never had a conventional life. From a very early age my family seem to move quite often. I can remember as a young child my mother saying that when she was first married they moved 9 times and never got off the block. My dad’s family had two rentals on their property. As we grew older we still moved often. Mostly within the same town but from one house to another.
When I got married at a very young age this moving situation continued. We had a small apartment, then a small starter house, then a suburban home for our family of 4 kids under 5. Then I got the country bug and we moved to a mini-farm in the country and lived in a very old farm-house.The kids loved the country life where we raised every farm animal under the sun. We heated with wood in the winters and I had a huge garden and canned all our food. I loved this life until my husband got transferred so we had to move back to where we came from and rented a small 2 bedroom house in town. We were cramped with four kids and two dogs and two horses boarded out but we managed. Finally we bought 5 acres and built a nice two-story home where things seem to settle down and we lived there for 15 years.
After the kids were raised as happens I got a divorce and moved to an apartment of my own. All of these moves were in the same state of Illinois. But when I took a job as a ranch cook in Montana life got really interesting. I met a cowboy from Belgium (yes they have them there, not many but I found one) After the season ended he flew back to Belgium and I moved to Wyoming where I was cooking at a lodge and about starved to death until a good friend offered me a great job in Florida to manage a horse farm. My Belgian cowboy came across the pond and we got married, shortly after that we moved to Montana where we so wanted to live and build our life. This was the state where we met the mountains were calling us home.
We worked on several ranches there and part of your pay is a home to live in. But guess what, when the job doesn’t work out you lose your home also. Needles to say finding the right job for both of us was difficult and we ended up moving 9 times in the 10 years we lived in Montana. So not to sound to crazy we did build our dream home, a nice cabin on a mountain side where we lived for 5 years. So the first 5 years were the crazy ones.
When the economy started to fall and things got tight, we knew we could not eat the mountains nor would they supply us with any security for the future as we were approaching the fall of our life. My husband thought it was best to go back to Belgium and secure his government pension along with cheap health care. All this seem to make sense since we were not getting any younger. So we sold our dream home and moved across the ocean and built a nice cottage home in the country.
Every time I moved to a different area the local people, you know the ones that have lived in the same house in the same town all their lives would always ask “So where are you from? How on earth do I answer that? I have tried to say I was born and raised in Illinois, but that is only part of my story of where I come from. I have tried to explain to them all the places I have lived but then they get a strange glossed over look in their eyes that says I think this girl is crazy. So usually I just say “Oh lot’s of places” and leave it go at that.
Now that I have been living in Belgium for the last 5 years, I have been struggling with the language, culture, and making friends but mostly missing my 4 grown children and my 7 beautiful grandchildren. My husband knows all to well what it is like not to live where you feel you do not belong. He had the same feeling when he lived in the USA for 10 years.
We both agreed that it would be best if I split my time between Belgium and Colorado. So come Oct 13th I head to the beautiful state of Colorado to spend the winter months and then back to Belgium for the summers. I told you I do not have a conventional life.
So now I will be once more be faced with the question “Where do you come from?” I have given this some thought and I think I will answer “it is not so important where I come from as long as I know where I am going.”
What do you think? Good answer?
Blogging About Not Blogging
Ok, I can not be alone here. You have been told to blog right? You have even tried it, got excited about your first and maybe your second blog, but then it happens. Your mind goes blank, you do not think you have anything to say or share, and you just don’t get why you should spend so much time making sure your blog is interesting, reads easy and flows, let’s readers get to know you even more than you want them to, show nice photography to add interest and do this whole thing several times a week. Are they crazy?
I have tried calling my blog by a name of the week like “Monday” so I will be sure to get it done by Monday. Nope did not last. I tried to pick a subject I am passionate about, like things I see and find on the back roads. Nope could not find what I thought were just the right things. I thought about just photographs, but then I obsessed about which ones to use. I just gave it up…..again.
Then it hit me. I am not alone. I am sure thousands have started and stopped started and stopped just like me. But that’s the point. We love when we read that someone else is just like us, not as organized, not as dedicated, not as ambitious today, has limited time, mind jumps around like rabbits, just like me. We are all the same but very different. And that my friend is why blogging has become so popular. They say by 2013 1.2 million people will be reading blogs daily. Why, because they can trust the people who are just like them.
The blogs I enjoy reading the most that are about nothing really. Just every day people doing every day stuff like me.
So here I go again. I think I have a normal life where nothing happens but ask my friends or family and they will disagree. I am always on the move in one area or another. So I will begin to “try” to blog again. Maybe I should take the advise my husband always says when I am trying something new. “Don’t try it, just do it” Yep
There I am off the hook until next week.
Letting Go Of What Is Important For What Is Important
Hi folks,
Decided to get serious about blogging here and will start back with making the discipline of setting one day a week to blog. I am going to pick Friday mornings.
I am going through a transitional period in my life right now and trying strike a balance. Some who know me would say I am always going through a transitional period as my life seems to never settle down. Is this choice or circumstance?
I think it is a bit of both. I can tell you one thing that is different about me over most people is I am very comfortable with change. In fact it energizes me and makes me move and create. But many times it can paralyze me. Which is where I am at right now. Reason for the lack of blogging lately.
I am trying to figure out how to balance marriage, lifestyle, business, family, friends, income, adventure, peace, and my sanity. This is no an easy task. Letting go of what is important for what is important has got me in a funk. To me they are all important, but one does not seem to fit with the other. So what do I do?
Many say you have to take care of yourself first and do what you love and the rest will fall in place. I agree, but balance is the key to all of this. Most important right now is a place to call home. A place where all of this starts and ends. The place where you walk in the door and say Ahhhhh.
I Hope you will follow me every Friday morning as I share with you all that is going on as I so desperately try to figure out this chapter in my life. I will continue to share photos and my adventures of taking the back roads, because deep down I know the answer will be found there.
Of course I would love if you would share with me your wisdom in dealing with all of this. For any minds are better than one.
Where Are The Clothes Lines & Roosters?
The other morning it was a beautiful spring day so I started the washing machine early so I could hang my sheets in the fresh breeze.
While hanging out the sheets my 12-year-old rooster was crowing away.
Then it hit me. This is something that is leaving our cultures.
I am an American living in Belgium and I can say that Belgium is quite a bit more traditional than America these days in comparison. But even here you do not see many clothes hanging on the clothes line and when I am in America unless it is on a real back road I never see it.
I recently asked a friend who I know use to hang clothes out why she does not do it any more, she said it takes too much time. Hmmm, it took me all of 3 minutes to hang out my sheets, I was breathing fresh air, enjoy the sound of my rooster and my sheets will smell like the great outdoors when I put them back on my bed. I would say that is worth a minute or two. Not to mention the electricity I saved and how long my sheets will last from not being wore out in the dryer.
As far as the rooster goes, here in Belgium there are many chickens and roosters in people’s yards. You can hear them all the time. But in the States, hardly ever, again unless you are in a real rural area. Belgium permits farm animals in residential areas as long as you have the room. I have seen donkeys, sheep, chickens, and an occasional cow on a regular size lot. They still seem to still hold on to the tradition of having these animals, also the reward of having fresh eggs in the morning. The American culture has all but given up on the traditional farm life. Everything comes from the store or Wal-Mart.
When I am in the States I miss the cozy feeling of a chickens, gardens, and clothes blowing in the wind.
So as long as I live here I will continue with hanging my clothes out, and feeding most of our leftovers that the dogs don’t eat to the chickens and the rest goes in the compost pile for the garden. Remember when being self-sufficient was a necessity and not a fade?
So if the world of electricity and technology should come crashing down, I think I could survive ok, other than writing this blog. I would really miss that.
Remembering Old Wives Tales
Wise Woman
The other day I was helping my husband move his 80-year-old mother into a smaller place. Since all the furniture was not set up, we had her stay with us for a few days until she got settled. Her and I were taking a much-needed break at end of a long day and having a cup of tea. She was gazing out the window looking over to the chicken pen when she said to me in her dutch language that it was going to rain in a day or two because the chickens were still scratching and it was after 7:00pm. I had never heard of that before and it got me thinking of other “old wives tales” that have been passed on over the ages. I decided to list some of the ones I found interesting.
- When the swallows fly high it will be a nice day, when they fly close to the ground it will rain
- Chickens will follow the sun eating if they are not penned in
- Don’t tie the rope until the calf is born (Belgian saying) or don’t count your chicks until they hatch
- A cow in calf will have a bull if the hair is standing up between her horns, and a heifer if it is laying down
- If the mist or fog is close to the ground the day will be nice
- If peacocks are making lot’s of noise it is going to rain
- If it rains on Easter Sunday, it rains seven Sundays after
- Never give a knife as a gift or it will sever the relationship
- Some people are penny wise, but pound foolish
These saying give me a chuckle and I guess some have a lot of truth in them, but what I am wondering is will we have any tales we that will be remembered in the future? Do we have modern day old wives tales to pass on? Maybe they will come in a different form like something to do with the internet or computers or social media. I just think it would be a shame if this generation did not have any everyday sayings to pass on to the next.
I enjoy old wives tales, just like I have always enjoyed the Farmers Alamanac to predict the weather. I suppose in the agriculture era this all was very important.
If you have any interesting “old wives tales” that you remember, would love to have you share them in this blog.
Until next time, and remember if you are a taking a photograph always look behind you, you may just see a better view.
Feeling Like I Am Not Alone
A place to ponder you thoughts
Today’s world is changing rapidly and as a woman in her 50’s trying to not only learn all things technology but keep up with it is quite a challenge. I started writing my blog because I enjoy rural life, draught horses, and the people who live these lifestyles. But recently I have had second thoughts on all of this. Who today is going to read a blog about a culture that seems to be leaving in today’s fast pass world? How can you build a business with images that the general public are not interested in? I felt like I did not have anything of interest to say or photograph that could relate in today’s culture. I was just about ready to scrap this blog and rethink my business, when I decided to read some of my followers blogs and others that I have enjoyed.
http://betweenourselvesandourland.wordpress.com/
I think what I determined the enemy (internet, computers, technology ) to rural living is the thing that may just help to keep it alive. People with the same passions connecting and sharing their lifestyle is inspiring not only to me but to others living or dreaming of the same things.
So I want to thank all of you living out on a back road somewhere and writing your experiences and stories. You are helping this photographer and blogger to stay on the right path. The one a bit less traveled.
I will be photographing a group of men here in Belgium that are going to be plowing with their horses this weekend and going to an old timers” fair and I will post the photos here on my blog.
Have a great week.
Taking The Back Roads 