"Favorite Places," Weekly Photography Assignment for 27 April - 3 May 2009

[keithsnell]

The assignment for the week of 27 April through 3 May 2009 is "Favorite Places."  We all have "favorite" places where we like to hang out.  Your challenge for this week is to compose an image that will successfully convey why your favorite place is a wonderful place to be.  If your favorite place is a comfortable armchair by the fireplace, than your image should convey the comfortable, relaxed feeling you experience while there.  If your favorite place is in the casino, then your image should convey the excitement and thrill you experience in this place.  If your favorite place is an overlook of a grand scenic vista, your image should capture and convey the grandeur of the scene.  You might find it useful to review the Intimate Landscapes assignment to remind yourself of compositional concepts that can help make your "favorite places" images stronger. 

Please upload your images to the "Favorite Places" album in the Weekly Assignments category of the Gallery no-later-than midnight Mountain Time (GMT -07:00) on Sunday, 3 May 2009.

[keithsnell]

My Special Place

This tiny little burbling stream isn’t spectacular, but it will always have a special place in my heart.  I’m very fortunate that I live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.  Within two minutes walking time from our front door, I can be on an unmarked trail into the National Forest.  This unassuming little trail is deeply woven into the fiber of my being, it is my “great escape” when I need to relieve the stress from family or work, my route to solitude when I need to be alone to think, my link to untold adventures exploring the natural world just over the hill from civilization, a way to invigorating exercise that strips away my worries, clears my mind and recharges my soul. 

The lower part of the trail is unspectacular, steadily climbing through scrub oak until it enters the ponderosa pine forest at about 7,000 ft elevation.  But if you look, and listen, the trail will deliver a never-ending stream of small, wondrous delights.  In the spring, you can hear the doppler-shifting buzz of the hummingbirds’ wings as the males try to attract a mate with their daredevil dives and acrobatics.  They dive straight down toward the tops of the scrub oak, and then just before certain death they pull up in a tight loop and zoom back up high in the sky, and plunge back down again, over and over.  Like the whine of a high-strung sport bike, the pitch of their buzzing wings changes as they zoom by at breakneck speed.  Once you’ve tuned your ears to the surrounding landscape, you can hear the calls of mourning doves, western robins, and countless other birds.  And see the fleeting flash of blue as a western bluebird flits from tree to tree, or the signature undulating flight of the tuxedoed magpies as their lazy wing beats propel them in a lift-glide, lift-glide, lift-glide across the valleys. 

From the first green of spring, until the first snowfall, an attentive hiker can see a delightful sampling of wildflowers.  At the lower elevations you can find the florescent orange-reds of the Indian Paintbrush, the blues and whites of the lupine, and countless small patches of yellows, pinks and purples of other wildflowers I’ve never taken the time to identify.  A little higher up the trail are scattered patches of wild iris, so delicate and dainty compared to their domestic counterparts. Next come the waxy yellow blossoms of the prickly-pear and hot-pink blossoms of the barrel cactus.   At the fringes of the ponderosa pine forest are small groupings of pasque flowers, their soft fuzzy petals belying their hardiness and ability to survive at the windswept higher altitudes in the mountains. 

Pasque Flowers

Along the way, intriguing capillary trails split off in all directions.  I’ve hiked this network of trails for over 15 years, and I’m still finding new trails to explore.  Many of these capillaries dwindle into game trails, becoming fainter and harder to follow until you are standing in a clearing in the forest, in a place you’ve never been before.  You take a moment to explore, then turn and try to work your way back to the main trail, returning home with the quiet satisfaction of having found new places to explore.  There are several spectacular alpine lakes within a days’ hike that I could choose to visit if I wanted, or I could stick to the game trails and bushwhacking, and explore areas that are rarely visited.  I know that if I want to, I can continue hiking for many days, probably without seeing another person. 

Shortly after the main trail enters the ponderosa pine forest, it turns deeper into the foothills, traversing the side of a steep ravine.  The trail becomes noticeably cooler in this section, transitioning to a spruce forest that shades the trail and patches of moss on the north-facing slope.  You begin to hear the sounds of a burbling brook down in the ravine on your right, faintly at first, and then louder as the trail approaches closer to the brook.  On your left the ground slopes up steeply, topped with jumbles of granite boulders that look like the perfect haven for a reclusive mountain lion.  I’ve never seen a mountain lion on this trail, but I know they inhabit this area, and sometimes I can feel something watching me as I hike this section of the trail.  Danger, even if it is only imagined, has a way of heightening your senses and making you acutely aware of everything around you. 

The small twists and turns, rises and falls of the trail as it follows the contours of the ravine serve to keep me always wondering and anticipating what is just up ahead.  Eventually the trail rounds a small bend and crosses over the brook to the other side of the ravine.  This brook is often my destination when I only have an hour or so to enjoy a short hike.  There is something magical about the soft murmur of the brook cascading down through the rocks that helps to dissipate the tension from my body. 

On more adventurous days, or when I need a little more relief from the stresses of everyday life, I’ll continue on to the more difficult sections of the trail ahead.  Sometimes I NEED to continue on.  One day several years ago, I had a very stressful day at work.  I was working for the Missile Defense Agency at the time, and we were scrambling to get our fledgling missile defense system into shape so that if we needed to, we could react to an impending launch from North Korea.  The launch was imminent, and we were running out of time to get the most pressing issues resolved.  After working furiously all day to resolve the most critical issues, I suddenly found myself wanting, needing, to get home before Evan’s bedtime to give him a hug and tell him I loved him.  The traffic was horrendous, and my stress levels shot through the roof as I raced through traffic trying to make it home on time.  I got home minutes after Rebecca had put Evan to bed, and she insisted that I shouldn’t go in his room to tell him goodnight.  Rebecca couldn’t know why I was so stressed (our knowledge of the impending launch was classified) and had no idea how badly I needed a hug from Evan. 

Suddenly I felt an overpowering urge to escape from it all.  I threw on my hiking boots, grabbed a jacket and headed up the trail, striding furiously to get away from the stress and the irrational anger I was feeling at Rebecca.  I powered up the trail through the scrub oak, into the pines and past the brook, and on up the steep, snow-covered, treacherous sections of the trail.  My lungs and thighs were burning, and still I pushed on, needing to get AWAY!  I continued to push up the mountainside harder and harder, out of breath, my heart pounding and my legs aching until they were numb, until finally my exhaustion and the encroaching darkness tipped the scales in favor of my returning home.  When I got home, Rebecca was out looking for me, crying, not understanding why I had left the house so furiously.  I couldn’t explain why I had been boiling over with so much stress, but my hike had defused all the stress and frustration and I was able to function again. 

Throughout the years there have been many other times this little trail was my savior when I needed a place to get away.  Providing me with the solitude I need to think, and helping me to reconnect with the priorities in my life.  Describing this “favorite place” has been a little bittersweet, since we will soon be moving to Wichita, Kansas, exactly 500 miles by car, and two minutes of walking, from this special place that keeps me whole.

[Becky Jenner]

My sister used to say this to me in my teen years..."no matter where you go, there you are."
It didn't take long for me to come up with my own meaning to it as a teenager, as I had ran away from home with a boyfriend and his Mom from the " dirt road,5 house's within a 2 mile direction,our Church with the smelly outhouse,being in an over crowded trailer with my Mom & 4 of my 7 siblings,and my unthoughtful notion....that there just HAD to be some place better! Like you,all I had surrounding me were miles and miles of woods.I spent so much time exploring them and all they had to hold and teach me! I had read a book then called "My Side of The Mountain" it brought to light a whole new world within my old world...I learned that cat-tail tubers were edible and not just lure snatchers when fishing,dandelion greens and the flowers were somewhat bitter but a free meal,that chewing on birtchbark not only tasted good but that Indians had many uses for it, such as tea,how violets were full of vitamins,and that the tubers of the dogtooth violet were edible in moderation and also used as an "artificial lure" by the Indians to mimic a nymph hatchling.After reading that book,I went to the library at school to learn so many more things about the wild that I never dreamed were possible let alone edible....like stinging nettles!
I felt confident enough in myself with my new knowledge that if one were to blind fold me,take me to any part of the woods within a 5 mile radius,and leave me,not only could I survive...But, I would be back home like a "faithful ole dog", long before the smirks of my siblings had enough time to fade!
But,alas...Being the teen I was,I ventured for more...and ran away to...Massachusetts of all places! It was a whole new world! Full of fast pace cars raoring up and down the 4 lane (on BOTH sides) Highways...people cursing at you if you didn't get out of the way fast enough! Witnessing my very first suicide as we drove past a 12 story building where at that very moment,a poor. homeless woman in her sky blue winter coat (in the middle of summer) jumped to her demise.It was horrific for me to witnes coming from the "back country woods" where you made do or did without...A few weeks into my venture of pretending to be 18 to get a job at the Arsenal Mall panned out and I was hired in a clothing department on the spot.I HATED it as much as having to cross 4 lanes of traffic to hit the "stop light" to cross yet another 4 lanes in the other direction just to get there!( In 1985 this was HUGE compared to what we deal with today!) So,a few days later I was hired at Star Market-This place was the Elite of the Elite!(We bagged groceries on a belt and gave the customer their # number so they could pick them up OUTSIDE while a Patron put them in your car for you under a car-port so if it rained...they wouldn't get wet! AND we had SCANNERS! These were Un-heard of in Good Ole Montrose,Pa!)...Yet,being I was really only 16,I took the world on by storm, but soon came to realize that after feeling bad for the Whino that slept on our porch every evening on Washington St. had a purpose in life...to let me know that deep down...I hated being where I was as much as he hated needing to sleep on our porch...especially in the raining evenings.After my insight was de-blinded...and I rememberd what my sister had told me....No matter where you go,there you are.I realized,Life is what you make of it,NOT what it makes of you!And that no matter where you go,there will always be the same things you tried to run from OR you will find beauty within every nook,be it so different than we are used to,so that one can feel at home.So,it wasn't long before I returned to my roots in good ole PA. A little bit smarter and less for the wear, but a lesson learned.I appreciated the beauty of a new place and it's new experiences but at the time,It wasn't for me...If I had it to do over again now,I would.But as a teen-My insite wasn't 20-20 then.As an adult...I would have found the inner beauty of everything new to make it "Old again" and found my inner strength to make it "home".Because,..."no matter where you go, there you are."
My Best to You,Rebecca,Ethan and McKenzie to find your inner souls to find home and a Favorite place ,no matter where you are

[keithsnell]

Becky,

Thank you for sharing a bit of your life with us, and for wishing us well.  I believe Rebecca and I had the opportunity to meet you briefly at a family reunion six or seven years ago, but I was meeting so many "new" relatives that day that everything is a blur.  I hope that we get a chance to meet again sometime in the coming years, and get a chance to really talk.  I like your perspective on life. 

Our beautiful "new" house in Wichita is in the middle of the city, in the middle of the plains, so I will miss being able to go hiking at a moments notice.  But we will be close to Rebecca's family, and close to their family cattle ranch, so Rebecca, Evan and McKenzie will have a richer life because of that, which means that I will too.  But I'll still miss the mountains.    There is something very powerful about being "connected" to nature that I find hard to explain, but I know that it is a real and valuable part of my life.  Hopefully we will have the opportunity to help Evan and McKenzie experience that connection so that they too can learn to value the natural world, and help to preserve it for future generations.

My best to you as well,
Keith

 

[Becky Jenner]

I apologize for mixing up Evans name! My youngest had came back downstairs as I was typing and reminded me to look for his blue tractor for ETHAN

[keithsnell]

No problem. 

Keith