Late Fall Leads to Joining Instagram

A walk in late November started out with a sense of responsibility to exercise – just do it. But after a quarter-mile, tracks of a shoeshoe hare prompted me to get out my phone camera and attach it to my monopod walking stick. Then I kept it on the monopod, looking through the viewfinder often as I walked, watching compositions form and unfold and then pass. I took several series of photos of ones I really liked, starting with the rabbit track.

Animal tracks, dried grasses, and weeds in snow are photographic subjects common among artists and walkers. They are elegant and lyrical: line drawings stated beautifully right at your feet. The viewfinder isolates and celebrates them. Many such photos are posted on facebook and on blogs and Instagram. Artists often use them as resource material or they may become the subject for completed drawings or paintings. Photographers may complete them as a photograph. Walkers and naturalists may want a visual to identify later or to show others what’s out there.

There is another satisfaction of stopping to photograph and that’s how a visual engagement with the natural world wakes up my senses. Even if the images go no further, if they stay in the camera or get deleted, my walk is enlivened and my steps have more spring. I look around more intently, taking in more. Being visually engaged simply makes for a better walk.

Taking this one step further, I decided to join everyone and use Instagram as a platform to show images from my local walks. These are subjects and places I love, but aren’t part of any current series, so instagram gives me a way to show them. Please take a look and ‘follow’ me if you’d like.