The Hunger

Bright autumn sun shines through prairie grass in our pasture this afternoon.
Bright autumn sun shines through prairie grass in our pasture this afternoon.
Dan's first image of the day was of me shooting at one of the targets on the range here in Byng.
Dan’s first image of the day was of me shooting at one of the targets on the range here in Byng.

It’s nice to have photography students who are hungry for knowledge. It’s equally frustrating when they seem to abandon that knowledge. Sometimes I run into them months later and they confess they haven’t touched their cameras since that last day of class.

I started another class Monday night, and I have a decent bunch. One student who is particularly hungry for knowledge is my boss, Dan Marsh. I’ve been trying to coax him down to the vo-tech for months, and he finally joined us.

Today he and I both had a day off, so he ran by so we could shoot a few guns, but also so we could shoot some pictures. We had fun at both.

These are the marigolds I planted in the garden in April. This is their last chance to shine, as there is a hard freeze forecast for tonight.
These are the marigolds I planted in the garden in April. This is their last chance to shine, as there is a hard freeze forecast for tonight.
Dan makes images at Dorothy's house at the far end of the patch today.
Dan makes images at Dorothy’s house at the far end of the patch today.

A cold front passed through last night, leaving a chilling wind and pearl-blue skies behind it. The brilliant sun and sky combined with the turning leaves and dormant pasture to create beautiful photo opportunities, and Dan went absolutely nuts. By the time he left, he’d made nearly 400 images.

After a frenetic burst of creative activity, how does one keep the fire burning to make more images? For me, it’s easy. Imaging offers, at least so far, unlimited creative potential, and it would be a conceit for me to claim I had exhausted that potential. The technology of imaging has unleashed even more potential, and I find myself hungry to explore it. Photography is more than just a means to record the human experience. It is a way to build upon it, improve it, energize it.

Year after year I photograph the grass in the pasture in late autumn, and it always looks beautiful to me.
Year after year I photograph the grass in the pasture in late autumn, and it always looks beautiful to me.

Lately I’ve also been encouraging Dan, and anyone else who will listen, to abandon the mundanity of things like social media (Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, etc.), and attempt to share images more creatively. Hopefully we can find an audience, be they on the internet or in galleries, who are as hungry as we are.

The autumn sun shines through the leaves of a rain tree on the east end of the patch this afternoon.
The autumn sun shines through the leaves of a rain tree on the east end of the patch this afternoon.

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