I didn’t mean to fall, but I suppose I did. I closed my eyes for just a second. It all happened so quickly. It wasn’t the highest branch I fell from, but it wasn’t the lowest either. And strange, when I did fall, it didn’t feel fast. In fact, it felt quite slow. Deliberately so. So I fell and the closer I got to the ground, the slower I fell until I landed so softly on the forest floor – standing upright – that the ground and leaves underneath were still and undisturbed. And speaking of the leaves, they were suddenly yellow when just seconds before they were a deep emerald green. I took a few steps and looked up.  All of the leaves were yellow, and there was a stillness in the air that somehow felt different, foreign, which makes no sense because this was my tree. 

My tree. A tree I had climbed almost everyday after school. It’s where I studied and where I pondered things that one ponders while sitting in a tree. But today, I had landed in the same place but everything was slightly off. I looked ahead at the trail and felt a strange tickle in the air. The yellow leaves rustled and then settled. The large fallen branch that always blocked the path was now cut in two, inviting me closer. Someone, or something was watching. I wasn’t sure if I should walk the path or not, but for now, it looked safe enough. And so I went. 

Welcome to my blog where I discuss photography and film – mine and the work of others and perhaps some other stuff. I thought it might be kinda fun to talk about specific images, how they were created, if I had a plan for them, and how I feel about them. I’ll also include some original stories about certain images so I’ll thank you to indulge me on that. 😉 So of course I’m gonna start with the photo on my homepage. I call it ‘White Barn And Sky’ for well, obvious reasons.

My parents live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland which, if you’ve never been, is lots and lots of farms and big skies. It’s quite lovely and I’m fortunate enough to visit there on occasion. Like most photographers, I try to bring my camera everywhere. I often have an array of lenses with me and am lucky enough that my wonderful husband doesn’t mind carrying around my camera case while I hold us up taking photos. 🙂 Anyway, when I took these photos (there are 2 photos), I was in the backseat with my mom driving and I spotted the white barn. Immediately I pulled out the camera and snapped some shots. Yes, I took these photos going about 50 miles/hour. 😉 I also snapped shots of the sky (I’m always looking at the sky) and then composited them together into one photo. The barn photo had a lot of ‘stuff’ around it and I longed to just see the barn and the sky, so that’s what I did.

What I love about the photo is the dreaminess of it. The soft sweeping, rolling clouds were pure magic. They couldn’t be more perfect. Often I’ll take a photo and immediately not like it. Or I’ll forget what I originally saw when I took it. But not with this one. With this photo I knew I wanted the sky to be huge and the barn to be alone and tiny. To me it has a timeless and lonely feel, which is something I’m drawn to. I half expect to see a prairie-clad little girl looking out the window, waiting for the storm to come.

I love this photo still. In fact I love it so much I had it printed in a huge size and it hangs in our living room. I can see it right now while I’m typing and it makes me happy.

Anyway, that’s the story of this photo. I hope you like it as much as I do. <3