The longest American river isn't all that far away. I've been playing around in its history for years now, developing stories from its treasured history. No matter where you go up and down its banks, it's stunning in its quiet beauty.
But all that beauty makes it difficult to photograph. No matter what you shoot, the Missouri River is bigger, and all that bigness doesn't easily fit in a camera, no matter what lens you're carrying.
No matter how or where you shoot, what you go home with is small potatoes. I never learned my lesson, no matter how often I tripped the shutter: if there's any here, I click away.
On a day in July, a decade ago, beauty was all around, and I was arrogant enough to fire away, trying to get some of it on my memory card. Nothing here comes close to the level of stunning witnessable that day, all around.
Real actual beauty is legendary, always out of reach of the camera, but I'm thankful for what I can take home.
1 comment:
"Missouri, she's a mighty river.
Away you rolling river..."
The alluring magic of the Missouri is magnetic. I've traveled over it, along it, on it, and fished it. It still draws me to it today. I have the opportunity to be near it's headwaters, where three rivers join to make one- tales & narratives surround this river and place... Colter's run (just up the road), and then further down Lord Grizzly's territory. So many regional author's like yourself have created stories to surround it. I recently ran across an author who most likely is not classroom material, but she writes about southeastern South Dakota in away to allow you to imagine it... pulp fiction but enjoyable. M.K. Coker lets you drift along and get wrapped up with the ethnic characters- lives and issues (even Dutch- "Dead Dreams") in their imagined but realistic lives near the "big Jammer"- as she calls the Missouri. https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/m-k-coker/
and places, and escape in the wide Dakota prairie.
Post a Comment