Morning Moments

I love light. I enjoy the interplay of light and shadows. I find reflections interesting. I am amazed by minutia. Close-up views of basic things awaken wonder in me... and reverence. Because of this, mornings on the way to the barn are a really great time for me to snap quick pictures of the simple things that inspire me. I figure, "Why not energize my day on my way to do a chore?" I have found that this deliberate search for beauty and inspiration is a sort of spiritual tonic for me. It's humbling, yet hope-filled.

Take this tulip poplar leaf for example. (Really this tree isn't a poplar at all. It's a kind of huge magnolia... but I digress.) Things like fallen leaves covered with raindrops and grass wet with dew are what I marvel at. I delight in the way every blade and vein-covered leaf holds droplets of water like glistening jewels, each of  the millions of gems magnifying its surroundings while refracting the light that passes through it, and reflecting the light that glances off of it.

Even daylily leaves can glisten and awe.

When I have a camera in hand, I instinctively look for something "worth" photographing. So sometimes what I photograph is not so much beautiful, as it is interesting.  Take this crawdad chimney, for example. I found this one morning in the barn, right next to the giant post that frames the large, sliding barn door! I think that's pretty impressive for a gilled crustacean that lives in water. And it's strange.

Or what about this grass? It's ordinary grass gone-to-seed. It was growing in a thin strip that the mower doesn't reach because the aforementioned sliding barn door usually rests here. Without my camera, this grass would be something to niggle me, because it is something that I haven't taken care of yet. With a camera in hand, and with the sun still low in the sky, it was instead, a striking line of bobbing seed heads casting sharp shadows on the barn siding.

Mornings are also good for photographing flowers. Buds are often opening or are newly-opened. This columbine blossom is the latest flower that I have documented, although there are some irises that have started blooming near the fire ring that I haven't yet been able to venture near.

It's a good time to see deer in the morning, too. Actually, let me rephrase that. I see deer off and on throughout the day, but they are more frisky and entertaining in the morning. That means that the odds for catching a good shot are better. In these pictures, the sun is low enough that much of the hay field is still shaded by the tree line. The pictures aren't that good, but they illustrate what I mean about the deer being more playful.

In the following pic., it's midday, and they are boringly browsing.

A morning walk with a camera in hand is simply precious as well. Tromping through the hay fields, around the lake, and back up the long lane is soothing. It's a rarity, but when indulged in, it never fails to disappoint.

How about this "morning moment" by the pond? We had started our walk before the sun reached the tree line. After we crossed the dam, it began glimmering through the tree tops. By the time we got to the far side of the pond, the light was filtering through and illuminating new leaves on an oak tree whose branches hung out over the water. This picture does not give an accurate idea of the luminous greenness either.  

What about the recently-risen sun
filtering through the newly leafing-out woods by the lake... 

or dappling the lengthy gravel lane that my husband and youngest son 

trudge up on the long hike back to our home...

or hovering over the tree line 

and irradiating one of the hay fields in an unearthly, glowing green...

It is lovely to record morning moments like these. So I try to remember to slip my little camera in my pocket on the way out the door. It has often rescued a moody morning, for capturing a quick pic. cheers me.

After all, as the greats like Bing Crosby, Aretha Franklin, The Andrews Sisters, Ella Fitsgerald, Perry Como, and Paul McCartney sang in that famous Johnny Mercer tune,

"You've got to accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

And latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum

Bring gloom down to the minimum

Have faith or pandemonium's

Liable to walk upon the scene."