Spring has been fickle here in Minnesota. From cold to snow to rain to warm – we’ve had a bit of everything this week. I’ve already heard the welcome return of the red-winged blackbirds singing, and the lake ice has started to diminish. I was at Lake Johanna yesterday before sunrise. The winter air was crisp and cold at 19 degrees when it hit my face and hands as I got out of the car, but my ears could hear the geese and the ducks that were splashing in the open water near the shoreline, and in the distance a woodpecker’s repetitive hammering was contributing to the song. With all this cacophony the sun was illuminating the eastern sky in pinks and orange. It seems that everything is in anxious anticipation of the season of spring.
Photography
A photographic honor
This weekend has been Spring Break for the many photo clubs of the Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Twin Cities area. That means workshops and seminars, and a celebration of all things related to photography. Part of that is an InterClub competition amongst the Twin Cities photographers. Submissions are made in the categories of photographic prints or digital images. As a member of the Minneapolis Photographic Society I chose to submit monochrome and color prints. The competition is inspiring, creative, and impressive with its variety and themes and the amazing images that are submitted. I was honored to have my print “The time of peonies” selected as the first place color print of the year. I love this image for its “painterly” feel, its classic look, and the subject matter of peonies, which are dear to my heart. I was inspired years ago by another photographer from the Tacoma area, Freda Horn, who brought her painting background to her floral photographs; her images became much more than a flower photograph. That was my intent with this photo and print, and I’d like to think that I made Freda proud.
Echoes in a school hallway
We recently stopped at an elementary school to enjoy a delicious Boy Scout fund-raising breakfast. After filling up on pancakes and sausage we wandered the hallways. I was struck by the beauty of the old windows. The wax on the floors reflected the light coming through the multi-colored panes of glass giving them a wonderful ripple as the colors spread down the hallway. And there was an elegant simplicity to the old light fixture hanging above. The scene seemed to echo with a strange sound, aching to be filled with the laughter of grade school children running up the stairs, pushing to get in line, and the anticipation of classes. I wondered how many children have returned to the school as adults to marvel at the beauty that they either took for granted when they attended classes or more likely didn’t notice in the excitement and fun of being children.
Wishing for spring
The calendar turns to March, and our wishes turn to spring. The cold and hardness of winter is still around us, but this is when we yearn for the softness of spring – for color, thawing, and green. In Minnesota, the only place to find that now is at the McNeely Conservatory in Como Park – our very own oasis of spring. These daffodils represent the hope and promise of spring to me. The yellow of sunshine, the green of new beginnings, and the softness that starts the season of spring. Soon……
Winter lines
Yesterday was a blue-sky winter day with mild temps but a strong wind. With plenty of sunshine I wanted to get out to enjoy the weather before the temperatures plummeted to below zero. A little before sunset I went to one of the area golf courses to get some exercise. As the sun was sinking in the western sky, the shadow lines grew long and longer across the unbroken snow. They seemed to stretch much further than the height of the trees, reaching as far to the east as possible. Winter is the prime season of beautiful, low-in-the-sky light, accentuated even more at daybreak and sunset.
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