2 December

The Winter Pasture

by Jon Katz

We are entering the time of the Winter Pasture, which is what I call the landscape in the cold and the snow. There is great beauty to the winter pasture, marked by grey and white and dark.

The challenge is to capture the beauty of the dark days. I think my Leica will help me get there. It is a camera built for the winter pasture, shadows, and gray.

I wouldn’t say I like this time of year; I prefer color and light. But my photography is helping me see the beauty of it as well.

This image looks cold and harsh but if I look at it for a while, I realize it is just the opposite. The feeding of animals is a sacred time. We eat only after the animals are fed, and feeding them bonds us to them in a personal and powerful way.

Maria bent over distributing and spreading out the hay, is sustenance to the sheep. She talks to them and makes sure the smaller ones get some hay.  They love her and trust her in return. This is about warmth, not coldness.

4 Comments

  1. beautiful photo Jon. Your Leica (and your eye) have been challenging ME to look at photos in a different way. At first this almost *seemed* dreary and dark…..but when I really thought about what I was *feeling*….relative to what I was seeing, I decided that this emanated warmth, rather than chill. does that make sense? Very thought provoking!
    Susan M

    1. It does make sense, Susan, black and white sometimes challenges us to take a closer look and follow the feeling, not just the first glance..thanks for the good words..

  2. Did I already send this little poem?
    I heard a bird sing
    in the dark of December
    A magical thing
    And sweet to remember.
    We are nearer to Spring
    Than we were in September.
    I heard a bird sing
    In the dark of December.
    Written by ?? Hereford who also wrote “A Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten”

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