Reprise

"The dream of my life is to lie down by a slow river and stare at the light in the trees."

                                                                                                             ~ Mary Oliver

I didn't intentionally plan to start again, but I also never intentionally finished either.

Back in an early June post titled Summer Projects, I talked about my creative plans for June and for the summer. One being a film project, and one being a photography  project. Both were fun for the month of June. I did complete 30 days of filming, but have yet to finish editing the film. I am not too worried, I know I will get it done.

The other project, a summer long project - Abandoned Artifacts - was/is to be shot mostly at the beach, documenting the stuff people leave behind.  Mateless flip flops have been at the top of the "lost" list, but there has also been a stroller, a broken shade tent, a whole pan of watermelon pieces, and a pair of men's GAP brand underwear. But what pushed me to take a break for a while was a whole Fourth of July feast abandoned along the boardwalk, I know it was abandoned because I found it the next morning at 7 a.m. It became the seagulls feast.

Abandoned Artifacts became just plain trash left by people that don't give a s**t. It became too depressing. I had to find someplace new to walk for a while. I needed to find beauty and joy.

I returned a couple times to the meadow where I shot last summer's Meadow Project. It felt good to be back photographing wildflowers in the early morning light. But something was still missing. I wanted more sunrise without the barrier of large pine trees, I became a bit addicted to sunrises last year. So, I moved to a new meadow, one that is completely open to the rising sun.

This meadow takes more commit from me to get the shots I want. It is probably a twenty minute drive from my house. With sunrise at 6:22 a.m., I am leaving before six o'clock. Thankfully at that time of the morning there is very little traffic. I need to monitor the weather conditions: clear or cloudy skies, temperatures (cool nights create lovely ground mist). I must remember to pack the bug spray (mosquitoes are plentiful), and pack the rain boots for the dewey grass.

This meadow has a long winding paved path, no nice little circular loop like the other meadow. I won't shoot without my tripod, so that means carrying it or putting it in the holder on my back pack.

Last year's meadow was the beginning, this year's meadow is the middle. I am kind of hoping I stay in the middle for a while, that's where all the good stuff is.

I will go back to the beach and the trash abandoned artifacts, but I might spend the rest of July playing in the meadow.