The shredded stalk

hidden by a winter's snow

awaits the spring's rain

    I awoke on Saturday morning to find myself in a fog, physically and mentally. So to clear my perception, I drove deep into the still countryside of a mystic cast. The air was haunting and quietly comfortable. Darkened anonymous figures appeared, and then cleared by a shortened distance. It was a wonderful time to photograph the spirit of the day...

     This weekend, I took a few joyrides out to the marsh fields of Marshfield, Wisconsin. Ever since I had my driver's license, I had always taken a quick ride to nowhere. It was an easy escape from everyone and everything. Today, it still is... but with my camera.

     As I was tooling along a road named Smokey Hill, an old dirt n' dust track in the farmland that cuts through a glorious open wetland, a swarm of red-winged blackbirds flew out of the brush. They were wild and ecstatic. Flying to and fro, the blackbirds simulated a swirling ecstasy of motion. It was an awesome sight to behold across the setting sun's sky.

     The one-corner painting method in composition is where the subject is pushed to one corner of the canvas while embellishing the negative space. Ma Yuan is most noted for developing this style during China's Song Dynasty. Often, I have used this stylized composition in my photographs. The negative or empty space flourishes with a vast sensation that gives the subject a direct focus. Then once the subject is acknowledged, the emptiness becomes an additional story line in the photograph's dialogue by creating an ethereal atmosphere. The one-corner produces its sense of boundlessness, however we adhere back to the subject for a visual and mental completion.  It's a wonderful feeling to envelop such a vast state within our minds.

     With the water still high in the Mead Wildlife Area, I had to take full advantage of it all. I hiked for about two miles down a pike that separates the water bodies. Beavers, geese, and cranes accompanied me along the way. It was a wonderful jaunt, especially since the famous Wisconsin mosquitoes haven't arrived yet. 

Spring 2018 6

     I went for a Saturday spring stroll through the Mead Wildlife Area the other day. The wetland water levels were high from this winter's snowfall and spring's blizzard! In the day's slow setting sun, the water reflected an enriched blue sky and mysterious-like trees.

     While shooting, I felt a vertigo sensation looking into the reflections. I recall always feeling that strange yet amazing sense when hovering a puddle when I was young. To see the sky under you, gives a sense of flying through the a blue void. So in my reflections of reflections, I'm glad to still perceive such a sensation.

     The lens has become for me more than a means of just taking a picture. The development of my passion through the camera is still a growing to which perfection can never be reached. With no doubt, this perspective is self-defeating because of the relative understanding in self-worth, but the acknowledgment achieves the greatness that we all attain: life.

     Experience, venture, and education construct within life the augmentation of being. And having become an artist contained by this essence, my art is simply an extension of me, looking through