Photographing What I Know

Dogs / December 1, 2022 / By

Eighteen years of walking the same parcel of land, even a parcel as large as sixteen hundred acres, results in a particular sort of casual mindlessness. Not really a taking for granted but more of a forgetting that whatever habitat one lives in is extraordinary because you get to live in it.

Living a life with livestock and dogs means travel to different places is an option not often open to me. As a result I’ve learned to take photos right where I am.
But to see to the same place anew time and time again requires a willingness to lift one’s head and look up and look out. The camera and the dogs help me do just that.

black dog on prairie

More specifically of late is the craving I seem to have for capturing photographs of the dogs amidst the prairie, in particular, on the prairie trails that crisscross this place or the one gravel road leading in and out of here. My aim is for the images to be more about mood and less about a particular dog so some distance between subject and viewer is required. It is far tougher than it looks to capture such an image since the moment I stop forward movement all the dogs take notice and look back or return to my general vicinity. But I enjoy trying, so much so that I started a new photo collection of these images (under the photography tab) which I'll add and remove photos from as I get better at capturing what it is I am after.

Cinnamon Ewe

Sheep / October 5, 2022 / By
dark face ewe

Some animals stand out on account of their beautiful difference; because they are definitively not the same as all the others even though they are still so much alike. She is one of those.

This notion of not being the same is also why I made the decision to try working with a Kelpie. Kelpies are not Border Collies, they are alike in so many ways yet they are definitively different.

A Prairie Minimalist

Artwork, Prairie / September 28, 2022 / By

Through the past couple years of drought the landscape feels as though it may have shrunk a little, become more bare bones and essential. The bare nakedness is made more stark on account of it being harvest time and all the neighbouring fields are now laid bare to bake in the dry heat. Save for the stint of winter season whites the landscape has been very similar in tone these past couple years - dry and brown. The green of spring has been so brief it might just be canceled out should we head into another dry year.

Even the wildness of the place feels less than usual; I haven’t seen skunk or rabbit or badger or snake in a long time and the bird song is light and infrequent. I suspect the animals are moving toward areas where there is water.

sheep in prairie grass

There is a minimalist feeling to it; not bad, not particularly good either, just a flat knowing that this is where it’s at. On the prairie Mother Nature is taking a foray into less vibrant color and chaos.

And in terms of life lived out here, well, life has gone along with the shift of mother nature. The work of looking after sheep and dogs is minimal because there are fewer of them, or maybe I’ve just simplified the work to the point of bare essentials, I’m not sure. I do know I’ve become more direct about what to do, and then making time to get that specific task done. And I’ve changed what I expect my self to get done, and that makes life feel minimal in a healthy way. The big jobs that take days upon days to complete will happen in due time and they are no longer a frequent occurrence like they used to be.

Many smaller habits of living have also become very minimal without me noticing they were heading that way. Far fewer trips to the city, shopping only for what I need, using the library again. It is my recent photographs and the strong pull toward neutral tones in recent felted artwork that caused me to notice this undercurrent of minimalism occurring in my life.

needle felted wool art

I like the minimal - it goes with the less vibrant, less chaotic, introvert I know lives within. This undercurrent will pass on though; when Mother Nature moves on from this drought and into vibrancy again I’ll feel that pull too. And life will bring its opportunities and slips that toss me into excitement and chaos. Nonetheless I find myself feeling comforted by being in this space now and in knowing this minimalist approach will serve me down the road.