Changing Seasons, New Subjects

I took a photo student out for his first trip with a digital camera yesterday. We talked mainly about subject and composition. I encouraged him to shoot what interested him and to spend time with each subject, to come in closer, to remember that what you leave out is as important as what you choose to include. I didn’t have a camera with me because I was teaching, so I borrowed the camera I had lent him so I could take this photo because it demonstrates how dramatically different a scene appears during the changing seasons.

I explore this same park several times a month, but this scene appears dramatically different during the spring, summer and fall months with leaves on the trees. The color palette changed completely from intense greens to subdued browns and faded reds. With no leaves, the scene is about line, texture and shape. More than likely, unless there was a significant bird in this scene, I wouldn’t have photographed this scene at any other time of year. But the skeletal lines of the white trees, the dead tree arching over the nest box and their reflection were appealing to me yesterday.

Revisiting favorite places during different seasons allows you to appreciate the miraculous changes that go on around us.