Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Dark Nights

September.
We turn our heads reluctantly from summer,
start to look toward fall.
Morning crispness, school books.
Endings and beginnings,
sadness and possibility.
Enjoy every last golden moment of this month.
Squeeze out the last drops of summer and
hang it on the line to dry -
our memory of sticky days and thunderstorms,
wind in the leaves and crickets chirping.
These will keep us warm and cozy in the
long dark nights to come.

This is just something I randomly wrote down this morning in my journal, after I wrote in the date. It seemed to fit with this picture from Bath, the row of chairs at night, cool drops of rain on them, empty of tourists - foretelling of the seasons to come.

I am finding black and white photos very interesting lately. Before I left on my trip, I participated in the Mortal Muses black and white challenge. It was interesting to look through my photos and join in with some of my favorites. I was even one of the featured photos last week, in Thursday's post.

Participating in this challenge got me to looking at my black and white photos as a body of work, instead of each one individually. I love color, but I like the feeling that black and white can evoke. The simplicity of light and dark, lines and spaces. It got me to thinking about how I don't really see an image as black and white when I record it in real time, but when I see the photo on the computer it just asks to be black and white. Like this one, when I saw it in yesterday's editing, I knew that this was the way it needed to be.

And somehow, the words I wrote this morning, the challenge I participated in last month, the photo I took last week and edited yesterday all came together for this post. I love how that happens.

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful words and love the photo. Autumn is definitely creeping in slowly and this is my absolute favorite time of the year when the colors start to change, love it.

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  2. Isn't it satisfying when things come together like that? I love your poem. I've been doing more black and white photography this summer too, and really enjoying it. I'm ready to "squeeze out the last drops of summer" while I make a transition into fall. BTW, your photo on Mortal Muses is fantastic!

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  3. Gorgeous my sister... I adore black and white. Everything that is in frames in my home is black and white. Every picture that touches my heart goes through a b&w process. I revel in that process. Know a photographer that only does black and white childrens photos - I hear her heartbeat. Fallis my only expection when those vibrant colors leap out and beg to be seen. I wait in anticipation with you, transition on, my friend!

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  4. This is just something I randomly wrote down this morning in my journal???!!!

    Wow. The image, of course, is stunning, but I'm enchanted by the poem!

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  5. Beautiful, Katrina. I didn't expect any less (you know, of course, that our expectations are really high when we come to visit you).
    One question: do you take the photo in B&W or do you transform a colored photo to B&W with photo editing software?

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