And so it begins…

Appalachian Trail, Pennsylvania, 2017

An attempt at discipline, at following a practice, at working out my writing in public. Progress has been slow on the tome I’m endeavoring to write: “Buddha and Bowen: A Systems Perspective on Resilient Leadership.” That’s a different website, fortunately for my photographer friends. But the impetus for writing has led me to try my hand at a daily (weekly? weakly?) writing exercise about photography and the creative life. Some of this will be based on my own work, some will be based on the work of others. I hope that you find something of value here, even if not everything is to your liking.

The image above was captured in 2017 while scouting an Intersession trip for The Nora School. It languished in my Lightroom catalog until last December, when I went searching for a boring image with which to challenge my Creative Accountability Group. As part of our monthly Zoom meeting, we take a common image to edit, each in our own way. The results are pretty remarkable in the range of images we produce. Below is the original image, unretouched.

Alas, the Appalachian Trail backpacking trip across the state of Maryland did not occur, as my father passed away a few days before we were to leave. All that remains is a bittersweet memory of a snowy March day at the Maryland/Pennsylvania border, and the raw material for a group of creative artists to see beyond a banal scene to find some element of beauty.

Appalachian Trail, Pennsylvania, 2017, raw file