More reflections from my walk in the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens...

   Back on June 21st I visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine.  I did one post the next day and promised to post some floral studies later.  With Monhegan Island occupying my thoughts for a couple of weeks I'm just getting to it.

   If shadows and pathways are common themes in my work, reflections must rank right up there as well.  It stands to reason a  contemplative photographer would be preoccupied with "reflections" after all, that's what we do...constantly.  This was a particularly lovely one at the garden.  It was what my "contemplating frog" must have been looking at when I photographed him...an upside down world!  Is this his idea of "clouds"?  Floating and shifting reflections in the pond water that is his home?  Does he ever look up at the real clouds?  Many people live this way too; preferring to experience the world second-hand on the computer screen or tv screen.

   As I write this, friends who are visiting for the 4th of July are hiking Chocorua mountain with their teenage daughter who went under protest.  She wears her ear plugs so she can listen to her music and walks along quickly to "get it over with".  That is, of course, what teenagers do.  She'll miss the glorious experience because she will, no doubt, never look up or around for that matter.  She has a perfect excuse...she's 16 years old!  But, unfortunately, many adults move through the world in the same way...oblivious to the wonders all around them.  They seem to prefer to experience their world second hand.

    Seeing, in the finest and broadest sense, means using your senses, your intellect, and your emotions. It means encountering your subject matter with your whole being. It means looking beyond the labels of things and discovering the remarkable world around you.

- Freeman Patterson 

 

Look but don't Touch...

   I discovered this tree behind the retreat house in Bethany Springs, Kentucky while I was there.  It seemed to be a normal enough tree but wrapped in these lethal looking spikes!  No doubt it was a natural protection of some sort.  I pity the poor squirrel that tries to climb this tree!

    Don't you know some people like this tree?  They wrap themselves up in all sorts of defenses that say to all those they encounter..."Look but don't touch!"  These people shrink from human connection.  It is a position of fear and insecurity I think.

   I've often toyed with the idea of creating a photographic series based on human personality characteristics.  This photograph would definitely fit the bill!  I think I knew an English teacher in high school that could be this tree!  I used to think her a perfectly horrible person...so "prickly" and remote.  There's a woman now that I know that is also a perfect match for this tree.   I think they both must have been incredibly lonely.  I wish I had been kinder towards them.  All this from a photograph of a tree.  This is why I love contemplative photography so much!  It has the ability to draw amazing things out of the attic of your mind...

  

Monhegan in Monochrome - A Good Crop...

   In many ways, Monhegan is the perfect place for the photographer that loves the monochrome image.  So much of the island is tints and shades of grey already!  The foggy mornings only add to the sensation since fog mutes color.  There are some images that just cry out to be done in black and white so I offer this small collection of photographs to conclude my series of On Location - Monhegan.

Solitary Gull - Into the Wind

   I've chosen 12 photographs - my "Good Crop" - for this monochrome folio.  Some are also represented in color in my Sense of Place - Monhegan folio.  For me, they worked either way.  But a few just had to be done in monochrome.

     If I had to pick just one of all the photographs I made as the icon of my experience on Monhegan, it would be this image of the gull.  The delicate tones of the wing stand in contrast to the rugged texture of the rocks and, for me, Monhegan was a study in contrast...the little fishing village and the dense woodlands....the houses hugging the security of the cove while the cliffs dominate the eastern edge of the island with their dizzying heights and sense of danger...the summer residents who come from "other worlds" and the few hardy souls that brave the winter isolation in this one small world.  Yes, the gull photograph says it all for me.  He is facing into the wind...lifting his wings to soar above the waves...just like this tiny island does every day.  Both gull and island stand in splendid isolation in this landscape of stone.

   It wasn't easy to pick my icon...it never is.  I have to do a lot of thinking about the whole experience and what I find is that the icon is rarely a "pretty" picture.  It wouldn't be what the Chamber of Commerce would choose to represent their town (not that Monhegan has a chamber of commerce of course!).  That's because an icon is an intensely personal expression of one persons experience of a place and a time.  No two photographers would come up with the same image.  That's what makes the exercise of searching for my icon so enriching for me.  It is an exercise I encourage you to try the next time you travel to a special destination.

Monhegan in Monochrome

A Monhegan Alphabet...

   Here I am, (photographed by Leah Haraden; she appeared in an earlier post and turn about is only fair play!) standing at the edge of Burnt Cliff.  I am staring off and thinking deep thoughts no doubt but sometimes contemplative photographers just want to have fun!

    I am providing a link to my Monhegan Alphabet folio below.  Inspired by the letter "A" I saw in the architecture of the little church across from the Monhegan House inn, I spent one whole day of my week on Monhegan hunting for the rest of the alphabet.  It spilled into the next day as well as some of the other photographers joined in and helped me search for the missing letters I had yet to find.  This is a completely fun way to spend a day.  It is also, all kidding aside, a great way to hone your discriminating skills as well and it feels like those scavenger hunts you use to love as a kid!  Those skills will certainly come in handy when you return to your more serious work in the landscape. Why not have a little fun this summer and create an alphabet of your own?  Consider it a training exercise for your perception skills!

A Monhegan Alphabet

A Sense of Place - Monhegan

It is nice to know that there are still places like Monhegan, where time moves slowly with the rhythm of the tides and the ferry schedule.  The gross commercialism of the coastal towns on the mainland has found no place along the dirt roads of this island.  Only 30 families winter here now and last year there was only one student in the school house but life goes on.  Monhegan celebrates the 400th anniversary of the visit by Captain John Smith next year but there has been a fishing settlement here since the early 16th century.  Miles Standish from Plymouth Plantation came to Monhegan to replenish their depleted stores in 1622.  Indeed, life has been going on here for a long, long time!

   The little library, one of my favorite places on the island, was named for two children, summer residents Jackie Barstow age 11 and Edward Vaughan age 15, who were swept out to sea by a rogue wave in August of 1926 and drowned.  It has a wonderful interior that invites quiet time and deep thoughts...in fact, the whole island does.  You simply slow down and worry less here.

Home for a Fairy

   One of the most charming features of Monhegan is the tradition of building fairy houses in the Cathedral woods.  It is an enchanting place and one has no problem believing in the wee folk as you walk the woodland paths.  Tucked in the crook of tree roots, these tiny dwellings are a gentle reminder that imagination and magic are alive and well here on Monhegan.  You can get a lovely book about the fairy house tradition in Maine written by the Director of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Maureen Hefferman.   I visited the garden before my trip to Monhegan and they hold annual fairy house days.  Check it out here.

    So, pour a cup of tea and take a walk around the island.  Just click on the link below to open a slide show of my images.   I hope they leave you with a strong sense of this wonderful place but you will have to experience it yourself and I hope you get to visit someday.  Artists, photographers and painters, have been coming to Monhegan since the 1850's.  It's earned the island the nickname, The Artist's Island and it's not difficult to understand why.

A Sense of Place - Monhegan

Inspired by Freeman Patterson...

   One of the nice things about staying with a group of photographers for a week is to discover their personal sources of inspiration.  Steve Dunn, who will be the subject of a later blog post, introduced me to Freeman Patterson.  Perhaps, I should say re-introduced me to since I did know of his work back in the late 1970's when I was studying photography but it was wonderful to find and re-connect with this amazing photographer again.

   His famous book,  Photography and the Art of Seeing, is a classic and a must read for any contemplative photographer.  Although he doesn't call himself such, looking through his book last week on Monhegan brought so many connections that I felt like I was listening to an old friend.  His master's thesis at Columbia in 1962 was Still Photography as a Medium of Religious Expression. This, surely, was a monograph for a contemplative in training.

   I love the synchronicity of life.  While I was writing this post yesterday as I waited for the ferry to take me back to the mainland, I saw Kim Manley Ort's post on texture and her reference to Freeman Patterson.  You can read it here.   I love the analogy of texture and community.  I had never thought of it in that way before.  It is so important to keep your mind open to new influence wherever you are.  Revel in the surprising encounters.  My week on Monhegan, in the company of other photographers, was both inspiring and enriching and I can't wait to wade through all the images I received there in the weeks ahead.

 Seeing, in the finest and broadest sense, means using your senses, you intellect, and your emotions. It means encountering your subject matter with your whole being. It means looking beyond the labels of things and discovering the remarkable world around you. 

   - Freeman Patterson

PhotoTao Card #31 - Creativity

Card #31

Creativity

Tao's creation is infinite and endlessly 

various.  Everything is unique, complete

and interconnected.

- Exercise -

  Visit a quiet and personally meaningful

place.  Spend several hours photographing

every element in the landscape, from the

"large view" to the smallest detail.  As you

do, try to see how each tiny part is connected

to your whole sense of the place.  Photograph

it as if you will never see it again.  Choose 12

images that, for you, tell the story of this one

place in one moment of time.

   This card relates nicely to the previous one but instead of a walk through the landscape, it asks you to find a place to explore in intimate detail.  It can be a corner of your back yard, a favorite park, or even a busy street corner.  The important thing is to leave no photographic stone unturned.

   On my walk on the coastal trail in Quoddy Head State Park, I had spent a half hour watching a solitary crow on the cliff. (read that post here if you missed it.)  I walked on and when I passed by the same place awhile later, there were two crows there.  I'm not sure if it was "my" crow or not but I like to think it was, joined now by his mate.  Perhaps he was waiting for her all that time!  I photographed the pair through the bleached limbs of a pine.

     I've always admired the crow.  Such intelligent and curious animals.  I think they don't get the respect they deserve. (Find out about these amazing birds here...you can even listen to their distinctive call on the site!) When I read about them it mentioned that crows are rarely seen alone so my time with my solitary crow was all the more special.  

   See what new things present themselves to you as you spend an extended time in your special place.  This is another dimension of contemplative photography...the call to curiosity.  Read Kim Manley Ort's lovely post on curiosity...

    Get Curious