I have always had a tremendous love of nature. I guess I owe this love to my Mom, who always told me to look not touch and to enjoy with my eyes not my hands. Oh, we picked flowers and even dug some up to add to our own gardens; we were bad that way! However, for the most part, I was taught that you take pictures with your eyes so that others can enjoy what you have enjoyed. In essence, tread lightly and leave things as you find them.
I think that this instilled love of nature is what first drew me to poetry. I started writing poetry when I was 13 as a way to express my anger at the wrongs in the world at first and then as a way to celebrate the beauty around me. This love of the earth and its inhabitants and cycles eventually lead me to a B.A. in English specializing in Creative Writing from Marshall University. Photography was the furthest thing from my mind, but it lurked there in the background. I was always “taking pictures” with my eyes and saying to myself the clichĂ© phrase “that would make a beautiful picture.”
For years I have had cameras and tried to take “artistic” photos, but the camera never worked with me, never gave me what I wanted, so I never really tried that hard. I got my first digital camera back in 2002 when my partner and I were building our first house. We wanted a way to track the progress and report issues back to the contractor electronically, and a digital camera seemed like the perfect solution. It was. It also allowed me to zoom and experiment with settings I had never heard of or used in my cheap film cameras. I was hooked. I started taking pictures all the time and these pictures often inspired my poetry. But I still wasn’t getting “the” shots I wanted. I had to wait a few years for technology to catch up with my wants, needs, and pocketbook!
In 2008, we bought a new digital camera. This is the one I am still using today. It’s a Canon PowerShot that retailed for a few hundred dollars when we bought it new. I realize that for some, this may seem like a lot of money for a camera; however, for most professional photographers, this is a CHEAP camera! For me, this camera fit my budget and turned a hobby into a full-fledged passion! Once I discovered the macro setting on this camera, there was no stopping this nature photographer! The passion I had carried for years and shared via my poems transferred almost completely into finding that perfect shot with my camera. I don’t know how it happened or really even why, but somehow words turned into photos for me. I still love poetry and write when inspired; however, my true passion, my meditation, my spiritual feeding comes from getting out into nature and discovering new ways to see it through my camera’s eye
Home
It looked like a bull’s-eye,
swirling outward from a center peak.
Swirls of tan, white, black, gray, purple, peach, and brown.
(I looked up from sand to see seagulls
chasing the tide
feel a wave caressing my sunburned ankles.)
It was smooth as satin,
rough edges only hinting at its journey
from the blue horizon beyond my vision.
(I turned and watched a crab scuttle across sand
to rest in my disappearing footprint
as I lifted the shell to my nose.)
It smelled of salt, water, and sand,
holding residue of life once within its shelter,
reminding me I was on earth’s shore.
(I pulled my hand away
sat in fading sun,
allowing waves to rush up over my unclad legs.)
Its cracked edge told me it was once whole,
that this beach was not where its life began.
(I heard the squawks of birds
chasing each other for the scraps
from fishermen still on the pier.)
Its swirling peak looked like the eye of a lizard,
busy sunning itself,
or grandmother’s hair
twisted in a bun.
(I stood up then,
in setting sun,
to walk back to my temporary home,
shell in hand.)
