I had been shooting some still life images recently. When I pulled the SD card from the camera to see what I’d gotten, I found a few frames that I’d shot back in October. At that time, I was primarily shooting color images of autumn foliage. As is frequently the case, I had my infrared (IR) converted camera with me and took some IR images at the same time. I had spent most of my efforts working on the color shots for obvious reasons. As I began going through my still life shots I found a nice group of landscapes from October that I’d overlooked. It soon became apparent that this work merited more effort and exposure.

There is a romantic, painterly feel to these pictures that is at the heart of my art. Each photo begins with a moment in time, but then, through my process flow, each becomes a kind painting created with light. My background is in painting, drawing and printmaking. As each photo is developed in post processing, thousands of collective hours honed in those skills and thousands more hours accrued in photography work specifically are brought forth in each picture. This is the nub of what makes a photo, fine art, rather than merely a snapshot.

I believe strongly that these images are much more than pretty pictures for decorating apartments. The act of photographing in a forest is challenging to begin with. Processing any one of those photos so that it evokes an emotional response in yourself and others is equally illusive.
If you doubt this, take a camera into a forest and shoot 100 photos. Ansel Adams once said “Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” Think of how many thousands of tries you would need to discard to get a single significant image in any given month.

The title of this image is from a John Kinsella poem called Lichen Glows in the Moonlight. If there was a moon when I captured this picture, it was waning, but the lichen on the oak helped to inspire the name.

Finally, the lone tree in the middle distance, just off center to the right catching sunlight is the ‘Bird’ of the title. The line is from the poem When Autumn Came by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

All of my pictures are available for purchase. Just click on the picture you like here in the blog! See more of my work in the Gallery: “The Missouri River Valley”