The river's pace

I sat down last night and loaded all 600+ of my images onto my external hard drive, grouped them by day, then distilled them down like I usually do for this project. The writing part is difficult because I am no longer in the moment with the image itself. I have decided to do one written post to accompany the last 10 days of images and perhaps revisit a few over time. Although I photographed everyday, I had to work in a very different manner than I normally do. Usually I have the previous day's image in my mind's eye by reviewing the image throughout the day. Out of fear of running my camera battery down I decided to just shoot and then hope for the best. However, with this project in mind I probably shot more on our trip then I normally would and documented the experience in a slightly different manner. Visually it worked, but I prefer my other way of working with more intention behind the images and their connection with room for happy visual accidents to occur.

So here I am back at home in Lafayette trying to catch up on my life and settle back into the routine. My trip away was wonderful and much needed. No phone, Internet, and daily responsibilities. The only items on the agenda were to paddle down the Green River, eat and stay hydrated, liberally apply sunscreen, spend time together as a family, and find our next camp...oh, and of course marvel at the scenery along the way. We are very quiet when we are out in nature, although challenging with a 4 year old, so we can see the wildlife and not disturb other people (if only other boaters had the same agenda!). So my dominant thought on the river was about if I am quiet I will see so much more- beaver, deer, birds, etc. But this is a good practice in my daily life as well- when my mind is quiet I can see so much more clearly my own problems, their solutions, and enjoy my experiences on a deeper level. Time went by at the river's pace, slow and a lot of paddling, and I made every effort to just live in the moment.

As I chose the images from a period of 10 days I was reminded once again that a photograph is not reality. The photos I chose do not represent my experiences on my trip. They actually don't tell the story of my journey much at all. They are fragments of my experience which I am placing within the context of this project, creating a new story that exists on its own. A journey I am enjoying just as much.