A Good Haul

A typical lineup of abandoned photos from one house, in one afternoon.

Two stars for the keepers, and then I get to editing. There were about 70 total photos from this particular abandoned house. From there I narrow it down to about 30 keepers. Only about 5-10 of the remaining 30 will ever appear in public, but hey, I like processing. What the film guys got out of the darkroom, I get with Lightroom.

I may wait a while and comb through them one more time. Given some distance, I’ll catch things that I missed before, or have second thoughts about a so-so photo.

A good haul. Lots of great shadows and light shafts.

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“Are You A Naturalist?”

He popped out of the woods right in front of me on the trail, all crazy-haired and bearded. He was an older man. Not homeless, but maybe. I didn’t even hear him approach, and that’s the danger when you hike alone. Any guy could pop out of the woods and ask for your credentials.

“Not anymore,” I said.

“Well something’s gnawing on the trees in the woods.” He pointed to a thick section of the forest. It’s no wonder I couldn’t see him before. “About knee high.”

He wouldn’t look me in the eye. No, he was somewhere else. Somewhere in those woods.

His hands gripped an iPod and a set of headphones. How long had he been in these woods? And how did he spot a gnawed tree, knee-high?

“Not rabbit, or deer. It’s too low to be a deer. Maybe woodchuck. I don’t know.”

I tried to seem interested. I even thought about taking his portrait, right there in the middle of the Barton Nature Area in Ann Arbor. It’d make for a great photo, this dude with his swollen lips and unwashed jacket.

“I’m trying to find a naturalist so I can drag them out in the woods to take a look,” he told me.  “But you don’t qualify.“

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Around the House

I’m lucky. My house has a lot of windows, giving it an airy feel most of the day. But when the sun sets, the house becomes a pretty magical place.

It’s not like the harsh morning light coming in the front of the house, facing East. No, this evening light gets filtered through the oak and pine trees in the back yard. It’s softer, more welcoming. Our hearts turn West.

I love that feeling when all the lights are off in the house, and it’s just the sunset light coming into the house. It makes for a beautiful way to do the dishes, looking into the backyard and watching the birds and squirrels do their thing.

It makes the backyard a lovely place to be, too, come sunset, every season of the year.

The weather won’t let that happen just yet. But the sun is back, and it’s thinking about us. You can tell. It’s creeping back into life apologetically.

I’ll be sure keep the windows open.

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