Winter Sunset Colors, Ohio
Don't Let The Sun Go Down
This photograph of a sunset afterglow was taken during the winter of 1994-95. The bare branches and trunks of the hardwood trees along the far fencerow are silhouetted by the reds, oranges, and yellows of the recently-set sun, its light reflected off the bottoms of the clouds from below. In this way the sun lives on for a short while, even after it has disappeared from view. One last glorious farewell to another blessed day on Earth.
Hanging Out At The Barn
The photo was made one evening in my front yard, at a little place in the country where I used to live. Actually, my front yard was a barnyard, because it was a little add-on residence built onto the side of the barn. I heard that the man that built it did not live there, but rather used it as a place out back for the men to "get away from the women for a while". They would talk and smoke and stand around a potbellied stove that was since removed. Just hanging out at the barn, they were.
Coyote Howls On A Cold Night
It lies a quarter mile off the county road, surrounded by farm fields, pasture, woodlots, and a small creek. Coyotes would howl at night sometimes, music to my ears that brought a racing to my heartbeat. One night I heard them, and I jumped the gate and went down to the creek's edge in the black night to see how close I could get to them. They were further away than I'd thought. I listened to the water of the creek gurgle by and wonder what it would be like to be able to run with a family of coyotes.
Whine On, Lonely Truck
Late, late at night I could see the Big Dipper and the North Star from this view. There would be so few vehicles out on the county road at that solitary time of night that the whining of just one pickup truck's tires could be heard from a long way off, getting louder and louder, then peaking as it passed to the east before fading away again.
Don't Bother Me; Rapture's Calling
A neighbor once asked me, "Don't you get lonely back there?" Little did they know some of the real wilderness areas I've had the privilege to visit. "How could I?", I answered. Yes: I've got the land, and the trees, and the creek, and the coyotes and deer, and the trees and the sky. Pretty soft, if you ask me.
Photo location: Montgomery County, near New Lebanon, Ohio.
