Elevations (3 images)
Opening Day (Motorcycles) (14 images)
Disconnected (2 images)
I am fascinated by airports. They fill me with excitement and a sense of creativity. Within those spaces there is never a bad time of day to experience something unique. There are always new things to see and certainly countless people to watch. And while the delays imposed on us by this industry sometimes leave us spending more time in these spaces than we would prefer, our presence within these walls is a very brief portion of our lives.
Whenever I am in an airport, I am always struck by how we are all so completely disconnected from each other. Everyone is just passing through. We don’t share a cultural history, a political belief, a religion, a favorite food, a common set of relatives, a team mascot, or even a similar path through the space. It is a completely random assembly that I find fascinating to witness and experience.
The only thing we all share is being present in the moment. We are neither where we were or where we are going. We are isolated from everything we possess or will possess. We are detached from who we know and are going to know. Those are the moments we are completely open to the experience of being in the moment, unobstructed by the influences in our lives. As Eckhart Tolle writes, “The present moment is the teacher. Work with that – that’s all you need, really.”
These are the moments that make my camera feel the most powerful in my hands. I am forced out of my habits of composition and content, habits which I will very likely fall into again when I arrive at the other end of my journey. But being disconnected during these in-between moments within an airport, my attention is narrowed to only what the moment presents, giving my curiosity and creativity opportunity to learn and thrive.
Road Work Selfies (2 images)
Moving The Lines (5 images)
In-between (2 images)
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Between the beauty of the Fall and Winter seasons in Upstate, New York, there is a time of sparseness. The leaves have fallen and have been blown into dense piles against unmovable objects. The sun remains low in the sky and the temperatures are equally shallow. Summer colors have all faded down to variations of brown and grey. Wind becomes common and night begins far too soon.
It is also a time between the relaxed state of Summer and the effort-laden experience of Winter. Gradually every trip outdoors requires increasingly more clothes and coats, and extra time to pull frost off the car windows and bring its interior temperature into a comfortable range. The motorcycles have become nothing more than large objects to walk around and climb over inside the garage.
It also is a time of transitioning the way I capture photographs. Finding vantage points behind things that block the wind or using the relative comfort of the car become more common experiences. Longer lenses and working the gear with gloves are clear signs of this annual period of change.
Thoughts about composition start shifting away from being able to capture images from any location down to simply the things that can be observed from the continually decreasing quantity of vantage points. And as the snowbanks increase, pulling to the side of the road to capture a moment goes from being something common to being completely impossible and quite dangerous.
Pole Dancer Playground (2 images)
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We landed in the Lanard-Hornbrook County Park while on a short side-trip to avoid the main highways of Pennsylvania. These images were captured at the boat launch area.
As we pulled out of the park driveway, we observed some rather interesting neighbors living across the street from the park entrance. My camera wasn’t quickly available to include their photos too, but the title of this post captures the thought that ran through my head in that moment.