Last week I spent some time at Noerenberg Gardens overlooking Lake Minnetonka in Orono, MN. While I went there with a specific photograph in mind I also took time to walk around to make other photographs of things that interested me while I was there.
It’s a practice of mine to look for beauty wherever I am. Sometimes as fall and winter create a more monochrome palette I find subjects that feel very zen to me.
“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
— Elliott Erwitt
Last week most of the trees were bare and very few flowers remained but a few hardy ones still bloomed among the fallen leaves and I also found a few interesting leaves, pine cones and seed pods. Water fowl swam in the lake just beneath the gardens and I found watching the ripples they created fascinating from my high viewpoint.
Lake Scenes
Combined with the few stick-like weeds that poked out of the water, the lake scenes reminded me of Japanese art, very stark and simple. I was so fascinated with the ripples created by three mallards swimming near me that I made a series of photographs of them as they moved through the water.
Here are my lake scene photographs.
May you walk in beauty.
2 Comments
Jerry · November 13, 2017 at 3:13 pm
Thanks, Marilyn. I, too, have been a “pay attention” person for a very long time. My children will tell you that it was my mantra when they were growing up. It really started in earnest when a dear artist friend of the family, Aunt Grace, introduced me to a pile of fungus frowning on the sidewalk after a rain. I saw a yucky mess, but she saw only beauty in its subtle coloring and its unique form. She went on to wax poetic about it until to this day, I find it hard to see ugly in the mundane.
Marilyn · November 25, 2017 at 9:12 pm
Yes, I too see beauty in fungi and other “yucky” messes. Mundane life is filled with ordinary miracles.