Mt. Pisgah

I’m home sick for the second day (cold? flu? Who the heck can tell any of these cruds apart?), but Monday, my husband Peter and I reconnected with an old friend, Paul Hawkwood, who is taking the same online photography class I am (with Laura Valenti: “Candela: Finding Inspiration Through Photography”) class, and took a photo walk together up on the Pleasant Hill side of Eugene’s Mt. Pisgah.

Since I am sitting around the house with nothing better to do, I made a little slide show video of our walk using the Replay video editing app.

 

The photo below of the tree being isolated by a muted shaft of light from the thicket behind it was probably my favorite of the day because of the texture and detail of the chaotic branches–a study in object/field/ground. But more than that, it does what I say I want to do in my photography. In my artist’s statement, I say:

In my photography, I attempt to make things look as if they were imbued with a dramatic underlying force. I photograph to discover traces of the luminous fingerprints of the divine.

Photography takes me out of my head and into the world of light and shadow, form and composition.

I seek source imagery–those images that for me are emerging from some fresh spring of the world right now.There is a relationship with memory, dream, and reflection to be explored, photographed, suggested, and known.

PisgahTree

 

What I enjoyed was that the three of us moved at the same easy pace, talking but not over talking, taking photographs, being fully present in the morning and the rare opportunity it gave us to reconnect around a mutual love of photography.

As a hard working college teacher fully wired into the digital age, like the Old Woman who lived in a shoe, who had so many students, she didn’t know what to do, I intensely value time alone with my camera, and perhaps like-minded others, unplugged for an hour or a day, and I gratefully receive all encouragement to keep on doing what I often have to fight to get free enough to do.

Birds_Fields_Pisgah

6 thoughts on “Mt. Pisgah

  1. Mickey/Mom says:

    Sandy, You photograph my heart and your words ring in my mind. Today I slept very late and have just half awakened by 1 ;30 pm. My meditation was about myself and the body/mind/energy that I have to work with. It was not an easy meditation. I know we do not go back to what was and what is readily available is very limited. I do not want a lot of company just the few who speak from the heart. And they are very busy. There is no easy answer! This body is just wearing out from the inside, and so many things (the things you bring me) of great beauty are the things I and the family have done together through the years. I bring them to mind constantly and am very grateful! Moving through old/old age is much more difficult than I ever dreamed. Your last statement today,(we had to leave too soon) is so true. So Thank You again for a trip a with you today that reaches back and includes many other walks we have taken. Love you and Peter so very much

    Reply
    1. Stan Grindstaff says:

      Mickey… Thank YOU for your voice of beauty in the midst of your changing landscape… You shine through like the morning sun through fog & dried weeds & flowers budding… I hear your voice & join you in appreciation for your daughter’s touch of beauty in music, color & word…

      Reply
  2. Lloyd A. Meeker says:

    The fresh springs of the world are often difficult to find in noise of the familiar world. What are they seeking to become, as they unfurl like fiddlehead fern? A fulfilled destiny of beauty. That’s my belief, anyway. I admire your skill at stumbling so naturally into that beauty.

    Reply
  3. Alan Levine says:

    Gorgeous photos indeed, love the light and texture and colors.

    I enjoy the photo walk experience; people in the same physical space alone together. It’s amazing to find how similar and different we can see the same scene.

    Hope we can do one in March. I’ll be baaaaaack

    Reply
  4. Janette says:

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