It’s not always about the Vespa and riding…
An evening in the garden with Kim. Both of us with small digital cameras sketching the surroundings. We can both get lost in the image making process. It’s interesting how differently we see the same place.
This season has been exceptional for plants. The temperatures have remained mild and there has been plenty of moisture for growth. Our garden quickly becomes a jungle of plant growth if neglect it long.
Bluebells have appeared likely seeded from birds that visit. As the light fades the flowers glow.
Last night we visited the People’s Choice Festival in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. After all the artists and crafts people closed up shop for the night we remained to shoot more pictures. Kim has been experimenting with a new Panasonic Lumix camera. Her photographic approach is less constricted than my own. She isn’t concerned about all the “rules” that I learned over the years that can choke away creative exploration. She had a show recently of collage and photography and sold more photographs there that I have in my entire career. I can learn a lot from her.
The Vespa did enter the picture late in the evening when we decided some ice cream was required. A ride in cool night air under a full moon. And a return home with Moose Tracks and Peanut Butter Cup.
Evening rapture…
Finishing touches on deep thoughts and a splendid day often times become more vivid and understood when confronted with one of life’s little pleasures, a dip and a sugar cone! AAAAAHHHHHH
Anonymous: One can never have too much ice cream. At least that’s what I keep telling myself…
I do believe that I have read something from the American Medical Association that would validate that very belief!!!!!! Well, maybe not……..but there is the mental part of life as well as the physical. I love the justification process!!!!!!!
Dear Steve:
I am curious… Did Kim ride pillion to the festival?
You made a number of interesting points in this post, one of which may have been unintentional. It was the implied intimacy between you and Kim as you both strive to create through photography.
Leslie (the goddess who is my squeeze) is a photographer too, and an artist who works in “mixed media.” I am so glad she is not a writer. I would find myself competing with her for recognition, capital, and in literary expression.
Right now, it is just so much easier to simply have her dismiss me as a wastrel.
On the subject of ice cream… I find this substance far more addictive than drugs. I recently discovered “Moose Tracks” as a kind of combined flavor… I regret to report I can eat two quarts of this at one time. Fortunately, not lately.
Nice post today.
Fondest regards,
Jack “reep” Toad
Twisted Roads
Moose Tracks? Not a flavor I’ve noticed in Seattle… what’s in it?
__Orin
Scootin’ Old Skool
Steve,
I have heard that a garden is right up there with paradise.
Tim
Anonymous: I have an experienced and well tuned ability to justify. I have to keep an eye on that otherwise I may believe I can fly!
Jack: Kim has never ridden pillon with me. A number of bad experiences as a kid has provided her fill of that. She is talking about her own scooter though.
The festival is just a couple hundred yards from our front door so no need for the Vespa.
Since we met Kim and I have been linked in one way or another in creative processes — her as a writer and I as photographer in a number of magazine articles, her as subject and I as photographer in my MFA thesis project, and both as writers and photographers in a variety of personal projects. While we both go our separate ways for a lot of things we share a bond in these. And competition only rears it’s head when I steal one of her photo ideas. I can’t help it though, her eye is sharper than mine so I need to take shortcuts to keep up!
My office is less than 100 yards from the Berkey Creamery at Penn State. I know all about the addictive power of ice cream.
Orin: Moose Tracks is a flavor that Hershey’s Ice Cream (no relation to the chocolate maker) sells locally. To quote their Web site:
Let a wave of creamy vanilla ice cream loaded with peanut butter cups and swirled in a flood of Denali® Moose Tracks Fudge wash over you! A trip to the Yukon never tasted so good!
Good stuff.
Tim: The garden can be paradise but there is so much work at times that I get discouraged that I can’t spend more time relaxing in it. I strive to find the balance…
Steve,
As usual, a thoughtful post. Your point about how you and Kim can see the same thing yet have different ways of capturing the same things, really struck me. It reminded me of a quote I’ll paraphrase. We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are. Our maps of seeing the world are different and therein lies the beauty that each one of can bring to the table.
Art, creativity, whatever. What I want to know is how you got inside that tiny bubble?
Sojourner: Your paraphrasing reflects my experience precisely. Kim and I have had many opportunities to see this at work through our entire relationship as we have photographed or written about the same things. It still amazes me how varied the world can be.
I still have trouble letting go at times though, the old my way is the right way stuff…
irondad: We got in that bubble through simple science. We did one of those Honey I Shrunk the Kids things…