Yesterday I received a text from my good friend Ashley, asking (telling) me to "Update your damn blog, I'm waiting to hear about your trip to Shenandoah!". Well okay then, I guess I better get on it. I've given thought to blogging about that trip, but have always found something better to do, like staring at the wall. Truth is, I'm rather ambivalent about blogging, for two reasons. First, I'm not convinced anyone but those closest to me actually gives a crap what I have to say, and secondly, I'm a far better photographer than writer. If you want to read truly excellent blogs you need to check out those of my two best friends. Brian actually
is a writer, and has both a daily (roughly daily) blog that is insightful, funny, inspiring, thought provoking, and a thousand other adjectives. Check it out at
http://bgfay750.blogspot.com/. He also has a blog of his excellent prose poetry,
http://schlabotnick.blogspot.com. For any of those who are fans of The Bloggess you need to check out my friend Ashley's blog at
http://andthatswhenshesnapped.wordpress.com. Too funny. A great writer and a great photographer to boot. Damn her.
As for my trip to Shenandoah, there's really not much to say, aside from that it was a great trip. How's that for creative writing? I prefer to let my photos do the talking. I highly recommend visiting, as national parks go Shenandoah flies somewhat below the radar. Far less busy than its cousin, the Smokies.
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| Pre-dawn light over the Blue Ridge Mountains of Shenandoah N.P. |
In two days my wife and I head for the Canadian Rockies for a week, the last of three trips this spring. I've been fortunate to visit three extraordinary and vastly different locations in as many months. As an artist (I cringe when I call myself that, I don't think I'll ever be able to believe it) inspiration is the fuel behind our creations, and prior to these trips I was running low on that fuel. Seeing and photographing new and different places has stoked that creative fire.
Music was a huge part of my life while growing up, and whenever a favorite artist would put out something different from their usual work I would get confused and angry. What are they doing? Why mess with a good thing? How dare they! The most famous example of course was Bob Dylan going electric, pissing off legions of his fans. I'm not a Dylan fan, but you get the idea. Of course I now realize that as artists we have to continue to grow and try different things. At a recent social event I was asked what was my favorite type of scene to photograph. Until recently I probably would have said streams and waterfalls. But now I feel I've been there, done that. Not to say I won't ever photograph them again, I'm just taking a break. I did shoot a few waterfalls in Shenandoah, but only because I felt I needed to for marketing reasons. The lack of excitement and inspiration I was feeling shows in the photos, at least to me. They are technically and compositionally sound, good enough for publication, just not special in my eyes. And when it comes to our creations, no one's eyes are more important than our own. After I return from out west I hope to find that inspiration once again, this time closer to home.
