Three days – 640 photos – and Remington
I recently had the good fortune to spend three days in Estes Park, Colorado. Granted, three days is not a very long time, but I was incredibly grateful for that time. The last time I was there was in 2005 when we were driving to Seattle from Dallas for a cruise; we got to spend maybe two and a half hours there, and that really was not enough time. Because of other obligations and complications, I almost did not go, but I am very glad I was able to, and convinced to go.
The weather over the three days I was there was gorgeous, which allowed me time to get out and about and take some photos. I had never seen elk before and seeing them roaming around town at will was a treat. I saw a lot of chipmunks and prairie dogs, too, but I had seen those before. One of the most interesting things I had seen while there was a female Stellar Jay, which is so incredibly blue.
I stayed with some friends at The Elkhorn Lodge and was basically given complete access for photo taking there, as well as at The Elkhorn Stables (O’Dells). The lodge was built in 1871 and had its first guests in 1874. The old lodge is still in use today.
Yes, I actually did take 640 photos, which is a low number of photos for me, even for a mini vacation. But, my friends, Beverly and Betty, have a store at the lodge which they needed to clean up and organize, so I helped them as much as they would allow, which was not as much as I would have liked; given my back problems it was probably good that I was shooed out to take photos because I would have done a lot of things I shouldn’t and would not have been able to take photos for a long time, much less walk.
Most of the photos I took were just for me, for remembering a very good time in a beautiful town in the Colorado Rockies. I did get a lot of great photos, but there were two out of them all that have become my favorites. One is the “obligatory” Colorado mountain/stream photo and the other is one most wouldn’t consider. It is 
a black and white I took of a black and white 10-month old Springer Spaniel named Remington. I know this sounds strange because Estes Park and the surrounding area have a lot of fantastic photo opportunities, including that of wild life, buildings and people.
It’s no secret I love dogs and I have taken hundreds upon hundreds of mine in the last six years. Remington was a chance to take photos of someone else’s dog and he gave me a chance, even if for a very short time.
This mini-vacation was not just about photo taking, however. It was a chance to get close to nature again. My first night there, as the sun was setting, I sat down in the rocking chair on the front porch of the Lodge and listened to the wind blow through the tall trees. For some this might be a lonely sound, but for me it was like being touched by God, and peace and contentment washed over me. As the temperature dropped and the stars came twinkling out I was really reluctant to move from my spot but knew at some point I would have to go inside. And then, just as the sun faded into twilight, the howl of the coyotes sang across the hills. With nightfall all became quiet. It was a special moment in time given to me as a gift from God and good friends. A gift I will always treasure.
Although way too short, this was a trip I won’t soon forget. Memories may fade, but I have good photos to remind me of this fantastic trip. I hope I get a chance to return to Estes Park sometime, but it will not hold the enchantment this trip did. I found, here, something I had buried long ago and needed to rediscover within myself, and that I will always cherish and remember.
Posted in Reflections, Vacation by Jason with no comments yet.
Historical Photography
I’m not a young’un by any means, but I remember sitting in some of my ancestors’ parlors as I was growing up looking at black and white photographs of people I didn’t know who were long dead, listening to the chatter about this person or that and who they married and their kids, where they lived and went to church, and on and on. When I was a kid, I just found the photos interesting, but the historical value of the genealogy went in one ear and out the other, much to my regret many years later. Many of those photos are long lost to me; distant relatives may have them or they may have been lost to an estate sale, a garage sale, fire or other natural disaster. I still have some that were passed down to me, but again, the people on the pages of the albums I have stare back at me emptily and I have no clue who they are, where they were photographed, or when.
But, what is mostly missing in all of these photos are events. Not just in those people’s lives, but things that went on around them. Missing are the babies, the christenings, the family gatherings, the church socials. Missing are the weddings, the deaths, the elderly, school classes and graduations. Gone are photos of their houses and farms, their gardens and crops and animals. The men behind the plows being dragged through the dirt by mules. The rainstorms and floods, the snow storms and blizzards, or fields blossoming on a Spring or Summer day. The rides on trains, or early 20th Century cars. No towns with grocery stores or fruit and vegetable stands, gas stations. Missing, too, are the signs of poverty or wealth.
I am sure that there are people with ancestral photo albums that have these things documented, and I know that photojournalists have archives filled with these kinds of photos, as well as having published thousands of books. But, there are far more of us that have dusty albums with black and white photos of nameless men and women and children that are missing these kinds of photos.
Today, however, in the digital information age we are able to inexpensively capture the “times of our lives” and document the events around us. We have the ability to share the photos we take with millions around the world, or family across the country. We are able to publish inexpensive books and caption the photos so that everyone will know who is in the photo and what is going on. And scrapbookers create beautifully themed albums that can be handed down from one generation to the next.
We should remember, though, to not ignore the events that are all around us outside of our immediate lives. We need to move outside the doors of our personal lives and see those we work with, go to church with, visit with and grow old around; our towns and cities that change every day, along with the weather and the landscape. We should not forget to pick up our cameras and take photos of more than just our loved ones or the sunset or flowers; we all want to capture that “magical” moment that is worth a thousand words or a thousand dollars, but that is not all that our lives are about. Even I am guilty of forgetting that. Our cameras, digital, film and video, are valuable tools for recording our lives, our histories, and our demise for the generations to come. We just need to look beyond our digital lenses and and record those events that shape our lives and the lives of those around us.
We are, in essence, the digital historians and documentarians for our descendants. We should never overlook an opportunity to record an historical event – good, bad, or ugly. Someone, many years beyond our lives, will gladly thank us for that photo of Aunt Mary in her Hallowe’en costume when she was eight, or Grandfather Bob playing football in high school, but labeled and identified; or for the photos of the cars buried up to their roofs in the great snowstorm of 2011. Take it, print it, label it, record it forever. Not for posterity, not for personal satisfaction, but for history.
Posted in Perspectives, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Appreciating what we see
Dorothea Lange said, “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
In our busy, hum-drum world we often fail to really see the awesome sights around us. And, many times, we also fail to see those sights unless we have a camera plastered to our noses or in front of our field of vision, and then we only see them when we download the images to our computer. I can’t count how many times I’ve looked at a scene and not really “seen” it until I’ve taken a photo of it.
Having that digital camera plastered to my face over the last 10 years has made me really appreciate all the visuals that are around me, from the trash that lays in the alleyway in a run down neighborhood to the lines embedded in an elderly person’s face. One thing about having a camera in hand…it makes you stop and “smell the roses”, as it were.
Great photography can’t be rushed. Good photography can be rushed – a little. Bad photography is rushed and shows it. A patient photographer looks at every angle to see what would give the greatest expression of the scene that he’s witnessing so that his appreciation of the scene can be conveyed to the viewer of the resulting photograph that he has taken.
I know that many times I’ve thought, “I have my camera and I’m taking these great shot so that I can remember this place and time in time, but should I lower my camera and just look for a change?” Maybe I should. Maybe.
Posted in Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Making a difference
Ever since I can remember I have loved to look at pictures. It didn’t matter if they were of people I didn’t know or places that I had never been, or objects I had never seen. I just love looking at pictures, or photos, if you will. Black and white, color, sepia/vintage – those are the color formats that I love looking at.
When I got my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, I was excited, but only took those quick snapshots that kids back then took. Mostly of nothing and mostly frivolous. I loved the camera, but as a kid I wasn’t very serious about taking good photos.
My next camera was a Kodak [gotta love the brand!] Tele-Ektra 110mm camera, but at this point in life I don’t remember the model. I do remember thinking that at the time it was a pretty cool camera and it did take good photos. And it was this camera that started me wanting a 35mm camera.
I’ve had only two 35mm film cameras, and they were both pretty much alike: Pentax K-1000 and a ProMaster 1000. I loved my Pentax and used it extensively, but was limited by my budget. The ProMaster was a replacement/addition, but by the time I bought it relatively inexpensive digital cameras were becoming popular, and the camera was doomed to be obsolete.
Ever since I became serious about photography with my Pentax I had wanted to make a difference in life. Oh, I didn’t know how, or in what way, and still don’t, but that desire is there. I see publications such as Life and National Geographic and the photos that they have held over time and I know some of those photos have made a difference to people all over the world. Remember the famous Afghan woman whose beautiful face and eyes became one of the most famous National Geographic covers? For me, I had always wanted to take a photo like that, but of an elderly American Native woman on a reservation. That has, to date, never happened. , and most likely won’t.
My desire to make a difference hasn’t changed, but I realize that I probably won’t make a difference to anyone through my photos because I will never be famous, which might be a good thing because that would be overwhelming and I’d probably lose my love for the art. And so, my photos are there to make a difference to me; I’m not in any competition, I’m not out to make money, I’m not out to be famous. If I can share my photos from time to time and have them appreciated just because I took them, I think that for now, that is enough. They don’t have to be spectacular or life changing. They don’t have to be whimsical or stunning, or even taken quite well. Just appreciated for the time and thought.
Posted in Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.