Ghostly treesLondon, ON, October 2007
[Click to embiggen]
Note: This is another image from my late-night walkabout through our foggy neighborhood. Please click here for the earlier blog entry.There's something cathartic about being outside on your own with a camera when virtually everyone else is asleep. You stop thinking about the things on your to do list, the things you forgot to do yesterday, the appointments that await you the next day, the little nagging snippets of life that seem to fill your every waking hour.
Instead, you find yourself not thinking at all; simply reflecting on how quiet it is, how nice it would be if you didn't have to stay up late on a foggy night to experience this kind of solitude.
You're not on a clock, so you slowly walk from one block to the next, looking for just the right scene that will help you remember later on what it felt like to stand there in the still, damp air while the world around you seemed to be taking a much-needed rest.
That's one of the reasons I take as many pictures as I do: I use them to remember what it felt like to be in a certain place at a certain time. Long ago, I laughed at my high school art teacher when he called the camera a time machine. But now I realize he was right. This image brings me right back to that corner as it reminds me why we need to deliberately make the time to seek out moments like this in the first place.
Otherwise, we risk having no such reflective moments at all.
Your turn: What are you seeing when you peer deeply into this scene? Why do we look back at all?
Ok, I only THOUGHT that the 'Barking Up the Wrong Tree' photo took me right into "To Kill a Mockingbird." I was wrong. This one does. Unbelievable. Fabulous. Unbelievably fabulous.
ReplyDeleteOnce again you've really captured some magic with your camera. I really love these late night walk photos. Most excellent! And as always, your comments, insight and discussion invitation are spot on. :)
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Holly
That is a beautiful picture. I'm guessing you did this with a regular camera and not a digital? I can pick up pictures like this on my regular standard but not on my digital. I tried to take one the other night where the moon was looking through the trees, and all I got was a white light. It was a bit disappointing.
ReplyDeleteIt somehow looks spooky and peaceful at once. Great shot.
ReplyDeleteAw, what a beautiful picture!
ReplyDeleteKeeping memories is a great thing, but I have the tendency to overdo it, and live in the past. I always need to remind myself that I'm in the present and what matters is right now.
Don't ask me why, but when I look at that (beautiful) photo, it invokes my olfactory sense: somehow, I can imagine what that night smelled like. Perhas of the sepia coloration It also makes me think of some of Brasaï's work. I have a book of his "Paris by night" photographs taken in the 1930's. I don't know if you're familiar with his work, but it's very magical. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletethat`s a real nice shot. could be right out of lord of the rings.
ReplyDeletehi Carmi - Michele sent me.
ReplyDeleteGorgous photo! Reminds me of something out of Sherlock Holmes... :)
A Time Machine. I absolutely love that. I may just start calling my camera that. It's a perfect description of its ultimate function! And that photo... really speaks to me. I love it. I think it's magical. (and I don't throw that word around).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment about the Mezuzah. We love ours. :) I think involving your kids in the whole process is brilliant and must have really enriched the value of the tradtion. Love it. :)
~S
I had to check the comments to see if I had replied yesterday when I came to look, but I hadn't. I like these foggy pictures, and I'd love to try to shoot some of my own, but foggy nights are few and far between here. I like the fog, unless I need to travel, it holds so much mystery. Michele sent me today, but I usually come on my own.
ReplyDeleteHi Carmi :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat do I see when I look at this picture?
I see a higher power - name it what you will - and I see a gifted man who is able to give us the gift of such beauty and depth of feeling.
Michele sent me to say hello, hon.
cq
Hello, Carmi, Michele sent me this time...these gorgeous night time photos are just awesome.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done any night time photos - but now I am thinking about it...
I always get so much insight from your words and photos!
Carmi, as always, your photography is wonderful! Thanks for sharing this one.
ReplyDeleteI see the future in this picture...it's always a bit of a fog, but if you keep walking, it clears up and brightens up...just like the future!
I think your teachers wee so right...And beyond that, capturing certain images of not just places but people too, at a certain time in their life abd ib yours, enriches ones life incredibly. Speaking from a looking back perspective, as well as forward...I find the old pictures that I took, or that I have that someone else took are just fantastic to have abd look back on and, in my case, post on my blog, too....It is capturing moments in yime that are very very precious, and you may not even realize it till 50 years later, or more!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pucture Carmi...It truly sets a mood....
Michele sent me because we posted at exactly the same time...!
Hi Carmi, not been here in a while, well not blogged much recently. Sorry :-)
ReplyDeletePopped by from Michele's this time.
Looks like a good Halloween scene.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful and peaceful photo. I love it!
ReplyDeleteHey Carmi, you don't have to post this - just a quick question: have you been able to get on Michele's blog in the past hour? It doen't seem to work on my end for some reason...
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool picture- very eerie & ghostly...I look back because I find some things so much better in the past & also many things which have been much improved as time has passed.
ReplyDeleteMichele sent me tonight.
Another beautiful image...
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing.
Michele sent me tonight- glad she did!
the thing I see is giving me hope....hope that there really is light at the end of this tunnel that is a fifteen month long deployment. I have less than 60 days to go, and I am finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel....or in this case, the light at the end of the trees....
ReplyDeleteMystery. Life's mysteries waiting in the fog. I love this photo.
ReplyDeleteYesterday morning, I took a cab downtown to the local market at 4:45 am in order to help a friend and a farmer to sell his produce. I absolutely LOVED being there at that time of day with the vendors, before the crowds woke up. It was like a mystery unfolding.....of life I had never been a part of before. dark and foggy too.
It was a wonderful day being on the other side of the produce table...though I'm a bit stiff from hauling 50 pound bags of squash......it was so well worth it.
And, I realized again that early early morning is most definately my time of day.... :)
All I can think of is what a beautiful picture.
ReplyDelete