Photography retreat

Another week has passed without any regular writing on my part. I watch the calendar days slip by, ending each day ready for rest only too aware of having again not made space for reflection on all the activity.

I have been away, having attended the annual photograhy retreat at Kanuga in the western NC mountains, which ran from Sunday afternoon, April 27th through Friday morning, May 2nd. Arriving home shortly after lunch on Friday, Tal and I began a wedding weekend involving not only a rehearsal and the wedding itself, but four memorable parties as well. And, now -- today being Monday, May 5th, I am in Columbia where I gave a talk at the cathedral for a lunchtime meeting of the Daughters of the Holy Cross and am scheduled for a repeat performance at an evening meeting. Home will look so good when I roll up the driveway tomorrow morning.

While I have to admit being tired, a sense of exhileration offsets the fatigue, the after-effects of the retreat carrying me along. Being a student of Lydia Goetze (http://www.lydiagoetze.com/) and participating in her class, Landscapes of the Spirit, introduced me to a slowly-paced, deliberate way, not just of seeing, but of looking. Contemplative photography -- looking at the light and looking for the effect the light has on a scene -- results in photographs which can communicate more than an image or a subject. It has the potential to convey something of the photographer's vision and even something of how the photographer felt in gazing on the scene.

This photograph was made as part of an assignment to illustrate luminosity, an essential component of landscape photography. Shot at Carl Sandburg's, now a National Historic Site, in Flat Rock NC, I took it in color, but it comes to life in black and white.