We don't get to see the sun a lot this time of year. Winter would be so much easier to get through if it would come out more often. Sunday we had bits of sun in between the clouds. I stayed home most of the day doing Sunday things, preparing for the inevitable Monday that would be there all too soon. About 3:00 I grabbed my camera and Craig says "Where ya going?". "Oh, I don't know, wherever my camera leads me".
Truth was there were some cool looking cows that lived near my parents house and I'd been itching to photograph them. I thought the sun shinning might be a good opportunity to try it. It was freezing, in the teens so I bundled up and ran out the door.
As a photographer I've been trying to work on one of my faults. I find that I am sometimes intimidated to photograph something I really want to. For instance, these cows that live down the road from my parents.... I don't know who the farmer is, and what if he shows up when I'm out there photographing his cows? The farmer doesn't live near the cows. There is no barns or houses near them... just the cows in a field. I have seen the farmer feeding them but he comes from elsewhere.
Sure enough, I'm standing near the road with my big camera and lens and up pulls the farmer. I wave and smile. I want to be friendly and let him know I mean no harm to his cows. He gets out of his truck and looks at me like I'm a crazy person. I explain to him that I do photography as a hobby and his cows are awesome and I hope he doesn't mind me taking photos of them. He doesn't say much and went right to work feeding his cows. I try to strike up a conversation with him asking him a few things about his cows. He just gives me one word answers. I finally give up and walk back to my car... that went real well! And that is precisely why I am intimidated to photograph things sometimes.
A few years back there was an abandoned home a few miles from my house. The home had been empty for years and was way out in the country, surrounded my farm fields, not another house around for miles. It had been condemned, uninhabitable for a long time. But it was oh so beautiful!!! In it's day it was a grand home. It held so much mystery for me. I would have loved to know it's history. And it was also a photographers dream, old weathered wood, broken windows, overgrown vines and bushes, huge historic trees in the yard. I had heard that a local farmer had bought the property and was going to demolish the house to use the land. I wanted to photograph that house so bad. I went there with my camera but only stood at the edge of the road and quickly shot a few frames. But it was calling me to come closer. I wanted to walk all around it up close and get some cool photos but I was too intimidated. Within a week the house was gone and I regretted not getting the real photos I wanted.
My cow photos didn't turn out as good as I hoped. I'll try again another day. But I did stop at my parents that day and had a cool photo shoot with the guineafowl. I love those birds and have chased them around with my camera before but this time they cooperated with me and the sun was just perfect on them. I stare at those photos and look at the details of their ugly heads. They are some ugly birds!
How lucky I am to have my photography that brings me such joy.
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