Portrait of a Field in Autumn

Field Notes II.XLI: Photographing flowers and insects painted in afternoon October light

Welcome to Field Notes!

* A quick note before we get started. If you’re able to, I recommend reading this online, on a computer. I tried out adjusting the size of a couple of these photos and they look really good enlarged. However, as I previewed this post I discovered that the size difference does not take effect on a phone or in email.

These October days usher in the first real chill of autumn. In the darkness before dawn a gentle breeze stirs leaves and excites the skin with the cold brush of night. The sun is a welcome friend whose visits grow further apart.

Squirrels run rampant hiding their acorn caches. The starlings are migrating, forming black noisy rivers flowing through clear azure skies.

It is the October late afternoons that captivate me. Receding chlorophyll in the surrounding foliage meets with a wash of falling radiant light, warm and directional. The sun illuminates forests and fields with a resplendent glow and drapes the land in a blanket of golden contentment.

It all flies by too fast. October is without fail a very busy time. Work overtime clashes against family schedules and an ever growing list of tasks begging for attention. I take a moment to breathe crisp air into my lungs and feel the fading daylight on my skin, but realize that October is more than halfway gone.

There is a limit to the time assigned to you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return.

- Marcus Aurelius

And so, rather than sitting and wishing I had more time, wishing October would remain, I look around at the natural world surrounding me right now. Nuanced shades of yellows, purples, and whites, all stippled together form a luminous impression of a field. Clingy brambles buzz with insects. The infinitely varied life of the land is palpable underneath soft broken clouds in the sky above. I find myself immersed in this, unaware until I took a closer look.

Restraint and limitation. Of the things we want to accomplish, there is only so much that we can do. Our abilities are limited. Our time is limited.

Paradoxically, these limitations can breed creativity and freedom. Restrictions on pleasure and ease lead to the freedoms of good health, fulfillment, and happiness. With the right frame of mind, limits to our time let us live fully, freely, in the present moment.

While I cannot take the entire month of October to trek in the mountains, I can step out into the meadows around me now, camera in hand. I challenge myself to the limitation of only photographing with a 50mm prime lens. Bending, kneeling, and crouching for points of view becomes a dance of artistic composition.

This hyper focused impression of the bees, grasshoppers, and butterflies I meet amongst the blooms leaves them etched into my memory. This glowing October afternoon is an experience forever my own.

Though much of this month flew past before I could grasp it, I am learning to savor the moments that I do have. In that, there is satisfaction in knowing that I am truly living these October days. Less time slips away unaware. In that, there is freedom.

Guys, I hope you are getting something out of these recent issues of Field Notes. I had planned on a long series of backpacking adventure stories at this point, but now I’m kinda flying by the seat of my pants. I’m enjoying it though. Gives me a chance to think and get out locally with my camera. I always welcome and enjoy your comments and interaction-

I’ve re-organized my photo galleries AGAIN! And now I’m attempting to have a separate page for a store (its tricky- Substack isn’t really designed for that), which you can find as a tab on my homepage. Basically, this way I am offering only a few photos available for purchase as prints, but I intend on rotating them periodically. Also, this allows me to separate out my photo galleries and continue adding to them. Check it out-

Photography Galleries

Store

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By the way, I’m still offering this PDF ebook to any subscriber to Field Notes, but I’ve encountered a technical problem that I haven’t been able to resolve with Substack. If you can’t download it from the Welcome email you receive, just reply to the email and let me know. I’ll send you a link to it in Google Drive.