Five years ago, struggling to replace the color and light that was the heart of my new photography as the winter descended, I began photographing what I called the Winter Pasture, the shades of white and gray, the troubled moving sky, the world devoid of color but not of beauty and emotion. I came to love the Winter Pasture photographs, they challenged me to continue to see the beauty and light in the world through the darkening days, cold nights and gray world that is winter in upstate New York. It was my way of expanding my photography to fit the world I was in, not the world I wanted to see. Life is beautiful or it isn’t, my job is to find beauty any time of the year.

I learned that the Winter Pasture can be as beautiful as it is cool, and I welcomed it again into my world today for the winter of 2014, just days away. I was driving in Jackson, N.Y., passed a farm with horses and goats, and I stopped to take a photo of the two horses who were eating their afternoon hay, the sun was about to set, it was very dark in mid-afternoon, we are close to the Winter Solstice, time of magic and enchantment.

The horses saw me, they turned slowly and walked to the fence to consider me, and meet me. They were gracious creatures, beautiful and calm. A hawk cried out down the road and the horses turned to see. A good way to kick off the Winter Pasture this year, to remind me that there is always beauty and light in the world if you wish to see it.