Today I went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum with my camera with one intention in mind—to express what spring feels like to me. I wanted to capture the fizzy joy that rises from my belly all the way up to the top of my head when I see the first colors of spring emerge. When I see the first greens of the tiny leaf buds begin to open up the forest looks like a haze of green to me. I rejoice in the bountiful green world that is emerging.
What Spring Feels Like
After enduring winter’s long months of a cold monochrome environment, the first colors of spring and signs of life are so heartening. This is the time of rebirth in nature, reminding us that life is a series of circles of births and deaths spiraling together. Seeing life reborn makes me want to sing Hallelujah!
“If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.”
— Audra Foveo
I wondered if I could use camera movement to express the heart-leaping joy I feel along with the soft inner warmth that spring days bring me.
Whenever I’m playing with camera movement I’m aware that I will take many many throw-away images. In fact if I’m lucky I’ll find one or two that express what I hope to express.
Today I made many photos that I threw away. But every once in awhile I saw something that looked like what I had hoped to create including the lush green of the grass along with the soft colors of emerging leaves. There were several crab apple trees whose emerging leaves were reddish in color.
When I combined over-exposure with camera movement the red-leaved crab apple trees ended up looking almost like they were in bloom. What fun!
After a couple of dozen practice shots I started figuring out what camera settings gave me a slow enough exposure to move the camera, without being so slow that the image was simply a big blur. I also began noticing which types of camera movements and how much movement created the look I had envisioned.
Heart Songs
Sometimes my results were so abstract that you, the viewer, may have no idea that you are looking at a photograph. Still these images make my heart sing just like spring makes my heart sing.
I love how the pink magnolias created so many interesting soft shapes. Because the skies were gray and overcast today, I tried to minimize the amount of bare sky in the photos. But the gray also worked in my favor by creating a soft non-contrasty background.
“April’s air stirs in
Willow-leaves…a butterfly
Floats and balances”
― Japanese Haiku
God, I love this time of year! Somehow the long winter before makes spring all the sweeter. Who knows how many springs I may enjoy? I don’t, so I pay attention to each tiny sliver of beauty and I bask in the different tiny signs of change spring brings.
Spring flies by and before you know it full summer will be here. Don’t let spring fly by without paying attention to how spring feels to you. Breath it all in, soak it up, remember the beauty and the scent of spring.
May you walk in beauty.
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