after days of dry heat, hearing the rain. - Wendell Berry
The above poem was my inspiration for writing the poem below. Although not directly related in anyway, I have always been fond of Berry's work. Below is my poem that I wrote while on site at Huntington Gorge. Enjoy!
My Water Poem
The water flows so steady Summer so close I am more than ready Swimming in the waters feeling like becoming one of the otters. The crisp clear water of Huntington Gorge The waters so strong, beautiful shapes they forge. They say, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, but beauty here is certainly in the boulder. - Scott Camp, 2012
This beautiful video kind of encapsulates Lone Rock Point. Not in the sense that it was dark and gloomy that day, but the fact that it asks the question, do we have power?
Lone Rock Point showcases the extreme power of time. How humans are just a tiny piece of the puzzle in our earths history. We can change what shirt we wear, what shoes we buy, what plane we fly, and many other things (some of which actually have an importance within our daily lives), but in all actuality do we, the human species, have the power to control events? Lone Rock Point says no.
Wind on the Hill
"No one can tell me, Nobody knows, Where the wind comes from, Where the wind goes.
It's flying from somewhere As fast as it can, I couldn't keep up with it, Not if I ran.
But if I stopped holding The string of my kite, It would blow with the wind For a day and a night.
And then when I found it, Wherever it blew, I should know that the wind Had been going there too.
So then I could tell them Where the wind goes... But where the wind comes from
Nobody knows." A.A. Milne
The poem above reflects an emotion experience I had while visiting Lone Rock Point. This trip was more than just a photo class field trip. I was able to get away for a moment reflect on nature and its wonders. Geology is one of those things that is just so hard to grasp because it functions on such a different time scale than our brains can process. This day and age we are inpatient when we have to wait at a red light for 1 minute. But think of landmass and tectonic plates. One minute, one year, one thousand years is nothing to "them." It is these mysteries of time and natural occurrences that really make me reflect about myself and my sense of place on this planet. Even though I was such a short time to experience the wonders of this world, I will make everyday count, because to me 100 years is a long time!
The Audubon Nature Center was by far the best trip of the year, so far [edit - definitely the best trip]. The weather gods decided to cooperate and gave us sunny skies and temperatures nearing the mid-80's! It was fantastic to mill about in the woods and feel the warm sun on our faces and backs. The sun certainly posed some issues with exposure settings, but I managed to capture some really neat photos.
The Audubon Center seems to focus around conversation of wildlife, in particular birds and beavers, at least from the knowledge I gained while visiting the site. I wasn't able to capture any great beaver or bird shots, but I got a nice shot of a beaver dam in one of the ponds. As you can tell in this photo I struggled a bit to reduce the lens flare, so instead of trying to go against the light I used a nice post production filter to allow the lens flare to seem wanted within the photo, giving it that kind of old school film camera feel.
Besides the beautiful weather I was able to get my hands wet and catch some of the early signs of spring. I caught a newt, a tadpole and a snake all in the same trip, I felt like a young Steve Irwin! For the rest of this post, I'd really like my photos to do the talking. I am quite proud of many of these photos and I think words will take away from their expression and mood. So I leave the words up to you!
