Deadwood

Twisted sister
London, ON, March 2011

About this photo: Thematic. Favorites. Here. Just for you. Just because.

I had a few extra minutes before picking our daughter up from a playdate, so I parked the car near a local creek and reached for my camera. The day was miserable - grey and dull, with enough muck on the ground to make the entire photo expedition a questionable thing to do. But I clambered down the embankment anyway because, well, I'm not entirely sure why. If we're being straight-up here, I'm not ever certain why I grab the camera and head out.

I don't necessarily need a reason. It's almost like that Field of Dreams voice that whispers, "If you build it, he will come." Now, let's be clear: I'm not a farmer, I have no hankering to play catch with Shoeless Joe and I don't hear voices. But there's a pull that every photographer I've ever spoken to seems to understand. That feeling you get when you're looking at something, and you just know you need to record it in some way. It's a calling, a gravity, a need. So you listen to it. And you shoot.

And today, this twisted mess of branches was my gravity. It may have been very much dormant, a seemingly lifeless tangle of wood, with no direction and no focus. Yet to me it said one word: Life. The scene was random, imperfect, not always pretty. But still something I needed to remember.

Your turn: What "calls" you?