It's an odd patch of ground, expansive corn fields all around; it's a bare naked cemetery, maybe a half-dozen trees, pine trees, something of a rarity out here, except, it seems, in graveyards. I'd been out there a couple of weeks ago to visit a Siouxland politician, Charles Hoeven, a man once on a real throne of power, a man whose many years in Washington are rarely, if ever talked about.
Found his grave, but his is a story I've already told. What I noticed out there that morning was that if I played my cards right on some gorgeously lit dawn, I might just come away with a few good shots. So, yesterday, once I noticed the sunrise might well be memorable, I went back to the cemetery.
Worked out just fine, thanks to a gorgeous set.
I was not far from home, and I had things to do; but I thought I'd look around for more beauty--I've long ago decided it's good for the soul.
There are times where the sheer immensity of the world out here on the edge of the plains is the entire story. This shot, this shot, is all setting. Not a character on stage, yet, somehow, it sings.
And this shot is from my phone. I really didn't deserve this, but cameras in phones are so good these days that they make all of us into fair-to-middlin' landscape photographers.
I'm looking west, away from the dawn. Sometimes beautiful pictures just show up. I'm almost inexcusably Iowan these days--you've got to be from Iowa to call that landscape beautiful?
I stopped at Alton's South Pond just for kicks. When you're armed with a camera, moments come along when landscape photography simply happens. Some shots require very little composition because they just simply appear.
These last few aren't perfect, but I turned into the parking lot because I could see that mist was rising from the water. Not until I pointed the camera did I notice that geese had just finished their coffee and were ready to start their day. I really like these pictures.
The sharp colors had flattened into muted gold.
Looking for beauty, even in a graveyard, is its own blessing, methinks, it's own reward.
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