Have you heard of Waubonsie State Park? Well, today I became a resident here – a resident artist, to be specific. That means I’ll be spending the next nine days living full-time in a cabin at the park, working on photography that reveals even more of the beauty of the Loess Hills – and let me tell you, folks, this park has beauty in abundance!
In just a few hours this afternoon, I hiked through a forest and up and down the hills and across a bluff-top meadow, heard the shriek of a red-tailed hawk, saw red-headed woodpeckers galore, and just reveled in the sun and the wind and the rustle of the leaves. An afternoon like this is more than beautiful, it’s soul-restoring.
But while my soul is restored, my mind is busy with the challenge of photographing nature in the late fall/early winter. You don’t have all the lush greenery and bright colors of summer to work with. There’s a lot (A LOT!) of brown and gray and naked stalks and hard lines. It’s a different environment, and a different mood. But on my hikes today I still found color and there’s texture in abundance, so stay tuned – I’ll be sharing my work this week as often as the limited internet availability allows!
