It is a frenetic time of year along Piney Woods Church Road. Blink, and buds open, trees burst into flower, spring arrives….
Feb 232014
Feb 232014
From my walk earlier today, I offer these two interpretations of daffodils blooming in the golden late afternoon sunlight.
Feb 222014
I arrived at Piney Woods Church Road just after sunrise. I watched first light skim across the tops of the bare pecan trees along the roadside. And in a small pasture ditch, nestled between a power pole and a guy wire, the scene was mirrored in the water surface.
Feb 212014
I glanced up from photographing the daffodil to spot this nuthatch scampering down the trunk of a pecan tree across the road. Quickly, without much thought, I snapped this picture. And then he was gone….
Feb 212014
This is another image from my daffodil photo-shoot earlier today. The sun was low in the sky, shining through the corona, as if the daffodil had captured the sunlight within its core.
Feb 212014
I set out for Piney Woods Church late on a sunny afternoon, with one goal in mind. A daffodil beside a fence at the road edge was finally in bloom (I had scoped it out on a dog walk a short time before). My goal was to find a way to photograph it that would make it interesting. Dandelions and daffodils are much-welcomed signs of spring; they are also ubiquitous, floral equivalents of pigeons in a city square.
I spent half an hour with that daffodil, using my plus four and plus ten macro lenses. I took over sixty photos. I am not even sure which one I was using for the one below — the plus ten, I think. It is my favorite shot — and angle one rarely gets to take in a botanical garden, lying down and gazing upward.
Feb 152014
On several late afternoons this year, I have walked past these grasses rustling in the wind, and have been reminded of Tibetan prayer flags flying. According to Timothy Clark of Radiant Heart, “Prayer flags are simple devices that, coupled with the natural energy of the wind, quietly harmonize the environment, impartially increasing happiness and good fortune among all living beings.” Like prayer flags, these golden grasses catch the light of heaven and bring it into my presence along the road. My joy is greater for encountering them on my journey.
Jan 302014
On the advice of a neighbor, I finally decided it was time to experience dawn along Piney Woods Church Road. I knew it would not offer prospects as spectacular as sunset, because the eastern side of the road is almost entirely wooded. Still, I had high hopes for a grove of pines to be illuminated briefly (though this never happened). So I dutifully made my way there (across a neighbor’s horse pasture, this being the fastest route) before 8 am, a few minutes past sunrise. For an hour, I wandered the Hutcheson Ferry end of the road, photographing the rural landscape in the morning light. I noticed a few things about that golden hour as the sun rose slowly in the sky: first, that there was a stillness to the air; second, that it was rather cold; and third, that I live near the world’s busiest airport, as evidenced by a series of airplanes crossing the sky. All three of these realizations are contained, to some extent, within the photograph below. After nearly an hour of waiting and watching (toes and fingers growing numb), I saw my neighbor at the head of his driveway. He wandered over, mug of steaming coffee in hand, to politely inquire if I was aware that it was currently eight degrees Fahrenheit, according to his outdoor thermometer. Suddenly I felt much, much colder. My next sunrise may be a few months away yet.
Jan 292014
According to Birds of Georgia, the eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) is a “drab” bird, although it makes up for this with its trait of enthusiastically pumping its tail up and down, “exhibited with a zest and frequency that few species can match.” This particular phoebe paused just long enough for me to take its photograph, looking particularly contemplative (and rather cold), set against a gravel road backdrop evocative of a Japanese rock garden.
Jan 292014
Today remained cold, and our car remained garaged. In the late afternoon, I set out to explore the local landscape, in search of snowy scenes to photograph — an opportunity that comes to Piedmont Georgia once every few years at most. My tranquil surroundings felt so far removed from all the scenes of highway gridlock around Atlanta last night and today, with drivers stuck in their cars for tens of hours, struggling to get home. I was already home, and at home, in the comfortable countryside of Piney Woods Church Road. This photograph captures the mood well — a pastoral scene with winter trees and fields, with a horse peacefully feeding on hay in the foreground.
