A visit from spring

Storm in the meadow

It smells like spring here in the Bogs today.  Earthy, wet, and warm.  Most of the snow has melted, some of it making its way downhill and into the pond.  The wind has been wild and powerful, growing stronger throughout the day.

Rainy day abstract

Winter will be returning tonight.  The temperature will plummet from the 50s into the 20s.  Rain will change to snow.  What a contrary winter it has been, warm and cold battling it out every week.

I like the way the wind and rain blur the photos I took this morning.  The sheets of rain traveling across the water look like an artist’s brush strokes against the woods at the back of the pond.

I used some of the photos in this post for today’s small stone (Rainy day abstracts).  The small stones have become my morning pages.  I meander around for a while before I sit down to write, taking in the first impressions of the day.  Sometimes I grab my camera and take some photos to help me along later.  Sometimes I sit down to write first and then get ideas for images to go with the words.

Friend and blogmate Kathy over at reinventing the event horizon recently mentioned that she would be interested in reading about the creative process and how it works for me.  I have struggled with that topic a few times.  I wasn’t sure why until the other day when I realized it was because I usually don’t pay attention.  Because photography is visual, I don’t think about it.  I see.  I frame.  I shoot.  It is an aspect of me.

Frost on fungi. 11 January 2012. There is no frost today. Just rain and thawing.

Paying attention this morning, it was interesting to discover that it isn’t as automatic as I think.  I pick up a thread, a theme, and off I go for the day to work with it and see how I can create something with whatever caught my attention in the morning.

Another frosty shot from last week.

Lots of chores go on as part of the creative process.  Since I’m home alone for most of the day, lots of silence, too.

And yet another frosty image.

Thanks for stopping by the Bogs and visiting with me today as I begin to meander through the creative process.  And thank you to Kathy for suggesting the topic.   Tomorrow might bring some physical meanderings if the expected snow develops.  Perhaps a walk in the woods or a hike at a nearby park.  We’ll have to wait and see what the wind blows in tonight.

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