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| Fast and slow, all at the same time London, ON November 2023 This photo originally shared on Instagram |
I just repeat the same line to myself as I close the door behind me: I’ll see what I’ll see.
I don’t have any expectations as I leave the city behind. I’ll just walk quietly into the valley and let my mind wander for a bit. It never takes long for something to present itself, like a tiny message from the universe asking for a little attention.
On this Sunday afternoon, it’s the rushing water that begs for its moment. Now that most of the leaves are down, the entire place just sounds different, the usual whispered sounds of white water flowing over smoothed-over rocks rising to a sustained, cathartic roar, unmuffled by a canopy that’s now open to the sky.
I don’t have a tripod on me, so I figure I’ll have to become the tripod. I carefully lean against a giant tree by the water and compose a particularly fetching stretch of rapids. I stop the aperture way down, set the shutter speed to really slow, then get in touch with my inner Zen as I gently brace against the angled bark and trip the shutter.
I repeat the scene a few dozen times, moving from tree to tree until I’m satisfied at least one of these weird pics is workable.
It takes seven minutes from the first frame to the last, seven minutes when I’m not being called or pinged, when the only two things that matter are a) not falling into the water, and b) seeing what I’m destined to see.
The hatred that now envelops the world and has followed us home? Still there, but in those seven minutes it isn’t squeezing my soul. The worries and fears I spend every day struggling to control remain firmly outside the forest for as long as I’m Zenning out in the trees by the water.
Soon enough, it’s time to go back, to leave the river’s white noise behind and allow the calls and pings and worries and fears to find me once more.
Seven minutes is never long enough to hide out from the rush of a tumultuous planet. But even a sliver of time is better than none.
Even if we don’t have a plan.
#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #heritage #forest #thames #river #water #longexposure #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded
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