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A Pocket Full of Film

Fall is my favourite season. It’s harvest time for gardeners and farmers, and the skies are so clear and bright that those of us who are photographers want to spend as much time outdoors with our cameras as possible. 

Robert Adams, photographer and writer, said ‘No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocketful of unexposed film.’ I used two cameras today, one of which I have not used for some time. I saw my subject matter differently with each camera. And, yes, I had a pocketful of unexposed film, 35mm and 120. 

The photographer Dorothea Lange described a camera as ‘…an instrument that teaches people to see without a camera.’ I learned a lot about seeing as a result of spending several hours at her 1966 one person exhibition created by MOMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York). Most of us are familiar with her iconic image entitled Migrant Mother, but her story and her images made over a lifetime were at least as significant as this fine photograph.

I’m on my way to use more of my unexposed film on this pleasant Sunday afternoon. I hope fine harvest weather is coming your way and that you’ll consider using some of it to photograph – or simply to enjoy the sunshine and the crisp mornings and evenings. 

Harvest Time on The Great Plains

It’s fall – harvest time on the Great Plains of North America. Some farmers will be harvesting already, while others will be getting their equipment ready to go, or perhaps swathing some of their crops.

While they have watched the skies hoping for just the right amount of rain throughout the growing season they will now be hoping for clear, sunny days for the rest of the season, giving them enough time to harvest their crops without delays or damage to the grain.

My father loved harvesting. He loved preparing his machinery for what he hoped would be a harvest without interruptions caused by weather or problems with equipment.

The prairie air is clear in the fall – cool in the mornings and evenings, and warm in the afternoons. Great for harvesting and photographing.

Geese flying. Combines humming.

Grain augers rattling as they put the last loads into the bins. Long shadows just before dark.

Late meals. Stories and laughter.

Someone once said to my father: ‘I bet you’re really anxious to finish harvesting and have all your grain in the bins.'

My rather replied: ‘The important thing about harvesting is not finishing harvesting. The important thing is harvesting.'

I miss him: and I miss harvesting.

 

 

 

Summer Images