I feel something wonderful when the sun is going down.
You can tell beautiful photo stories when the sun is going down. As long as you don’t point the camera right into the sun, you can watch activities and people in an ever-changing world just by moving around a bit and if you are lucky enough to have one, using a telephoto lens. Most moments are beautiful in their own way and every moment is unique and will never come again.
This photograph is simple in most ways but there is more to it than meets the eye.
These children are harvesting potatoes. He is lifting and she is digging. Her little hands slip under the dirt to pull out the last of the potatoes. She is easily distracted by worms, whom she talks to and carts around for a few minutes before returning them to a safer mound of dirt, far away from the pitchfork.
End-of-day photographs, especially in the early fall, highlight the orchard and the tomatoes still on the vine. We are reminded that the earth and the air are still warm. We are also reminded about the spiritual nature of a garden and of garden work.
If you are a storyteller, you will cease to be surprised how much you can find to talk about in one photograph.
“Nothing golden stays.”
You might remember these words from your reading.
Telling photo stories at the end of the day can be a real lesson in how quickly things change. I wish I had a nickle for every time I have run for my camera, only to return to light and shadow that looks nothing like I thought it did.
Photographs like this one can only be captured now and then.
There can be unexpected symbolism in unexpected places. I want to sit in the chair in the orchard and feel the last warmth of the day. The ladder reminds me that there is still fruit to be harvested from some trees.
Maybe someone is still leaning on the shovel to the left and the pitchfork has turned over all of the soil and Olive is making sure that no little potato has been left behind. Or, maybe she is humming to the worms again.
Even the garden hollyhocks are giving their last blossoms of the year.
It is amazing to me how much information can be gleaned from one photograph.
It is clearly early fall. The marigolds are big, the tomatoes are still on the vine but many are green and some of the leaves are drying out.
Firewood is stacked for the winter and the carrots are still in the ground for the horses but have grown too tall and thick to be of much good to people. The shovel is the “tool of the trade” and little children could care less how dirty they get when they have finished their jobs and are hunting worms.
Photo Stories, taken during family harvests are among my favorites. They display the bounty of nature, the hard work of willing hands, the change of seasons and so many other things.
Harvests are Spiritual.
