The last part of April I took a working trip with my wife to Wisconsin, she worked while I got to play. I visited Cave of the Mounds where in previous years Buffey, my wife, Colin and I checked out the cave. The landscape is pretty in the summer but because it is early spring it was kind of bare. I figured I look around and create images with what was there. To my delight the barn, small building and water feature was still there.  I had to photograph it once again and most likely will again when I go back.

The water feature is part of a mining or panning activity. It is not something that most people think to photograph it but I felt it was a good exercise in long exposures and moving water. I think I capture it in the most interesting way it will be ever caught.

The Door is part of a barn that who knows how long it has been standing. I love the texture and lines vertical that the door creates against the horizontal lines of the rest of the barn. I like better this image I created from the last one about 4 or 5 years ago.

I am not sure what the building is housing but since I had been there the vine had grown up the side. I love the broken movement of the vine against the regular pattern of the brick and windows. The roof pattern and texture is the only think akin to the natural pattern and texture of the vine.

I have many more to process and will post them in the coming weeks. If you ever get a chance to visit the Cave of the Mound I would. It is a great cave and the surrounding area is beautiful and not too far from a state park. Not to mention Mt Horeb where you can get the best food and beer at the Grumpy Troll.

Landscape #3

Tuesday was one of those days where the light and weather was not what I was looking for to make images of downtown so I opted instead to head out to the country side to create photographs. Being spring the weather tends to be turbulent for most the days. In the latter half of spring into early summer the number of storms that produce tornados grow substantially. As Iowans, we tend to live by the weather. The farmer’s success is tied to the favor of the weather so it is common place that we keep one eye on the sky while going about our daily lives. And in the spring when the weather turns bad and storms roll across our plains we don’t always head for shelter. Instead sit out on our front porch and watch the violence of the wind, rain wrapped in thunder and lighting and the few tornados carve paths of destruction in our fields.  Only when the danger is truly baring down upon us do we seek shelter only to step out and face the destruction head on.

As bad as the clouds look it was one of those spring days where it could not make up its mind wither to rain and be nasty or just look that way. Many of times on days like these I couldn’t help be drawn to stand out in a field and watch the clouds race by. It’s the drama of the sky and the energy that swirls and builds in the atmosphere. It’s watching the clouds move one way or another and as they did the light change giving them and the landscape character rather than flat grey like winter.  

For me Spring is change, the energy that is building to push the life from the ground. I could feel it standing there as the clouds passed overhead creating a friction between land and sky, anticipating a spark, a bolt of lightning discharging the color of the planet breaking the monochromatic spell of winter. Just stand there and you will feel it.