Daniel Ruf

That Darn Journey!

This past week I have spent a good deal of time editing the work from my trip to North Dakota and Minnesota and have enjoyed reviewing landscapes that, at the time of their capture, I was involved in a short "oh, wow" moment and then absorbed by the business of getting the image into the camera.  Of course, after that, there is a certain amount of mental interview that occurs in which I ask myself whether or not I remembered to set this dial, change this setting and view the outside edges of the camera viewfinder.  Most of this work is engraved in my brain, so it happens automatically as I'm setting up for a shot, but sometimes I do find that a miscalculation has managed to enter my system of "confrontation" with a landscape.  In the above case, the storm cloud near Cavalier, North Dakota, I saw this as a black and white image from the outset.  Even though I saw the situation in color, I knew that it would make a great black and white shot and be more powerful for the change.

The exciting thing about photography, whether a person is using a wet darkroom or a computer as their editing medium, is when your initial thoughts (pre-visualization) are realized in the final print.  In my case, even after having sloshed my way through countless darkroom trays of developer or endless keyboard work at the computer, I still stand in amazement when something comes out dead on to my initial visual plan.  The more work that I do, the more time I spend in the field, I'm finding that positive results are becoming more frequent, yet still as exciting as the first print that I raised out of the fixer solution in the darkroom.  Whether color or black and white, seeing a concept form from a natural experience is still exhilarating and rewarding.  In the case of any of my images my hope is that I can relate the power or awe of a visual situation to the viewer and involve them in the environmental process that I was witnessing.  Of course not everyone is going to find the same visual stimulation of a "live" situation that I did, but hopefully I can get them close.

While I'm not sure that I really did justice to my time at the headwaters of the Mississippi River, I was happy to get this very unexpected image of a water lily that was nearby.  If I had not trekked into the woods and around a few bends I wouldn't have found this little gem waiting for me in the rain.  I wasn't even thinking of water lilies at the time and I'm sure that most people that see this image will think it was taken in some garden.  I wasn't even expecting the little beauty to be around the next turn.  As luck would have it I needed several shots to achieve this final because of the wind jostling the reeds and changing the location of the lily.  Thank heavens for a little curiosity and a dab of luck!

The education process continues, no matter if its the people one meets along the way or the road less traveled one may take, there always seems to be a reason for these chance encounters and course corrections.  The secret is to follow the current rather than fight it, to yield to the subtle mental compass that is guiding or stimulating you to take a peek around the next corner.  This is the same driving impetus that led Lewis and Clark to the expansive views of the west or Powell to put that flimsy boat in the rushing Colorado River.

Go ahead and explore...look around the next bend...you know you want to!

 

Thanks for stopping buy and joining my journey.

For more views of my work visit:

 

"A Piece Of Work", Spirit Lake, Iowa

Art Of The Vine Gallery http://www.artofthevinegallery.com

"Art On 16th, Spirit Lake, Iowa

Artisans Road Trip www.artisansroadtrip.com

"CR Gallery", Milford, Iowa

http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/Default.aspx?id=251674&mp=V1

The Cornucopia Art Center, Lanesboro, Minnesota

www.lanesboroarts.org

Lessons

Today finds me back at the homestead after a five day photo shoot through North Dakota and Minnesota and as with all trips of this sort there are challenges, but also huge rewards and not all of them photographic.  My stop in Itasca State Park in Minnesota was totally selfish in that I wanted to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River and I was not disappointed.  The image above was taken at around 5am and as you can see I was joined by four Black Ducks as they tended to their morning ritual of bathing.  It was just them and me, some loons calling in the background and a Bald Eagle adding to the chorus on occasion.  After two hours of shooting this scene I couldn't help thinking that this was one of the most amazing mornings that I have spent in my lifetime.  As with most mornings in the wilderness there was such a peace about this scene that all the troubles of the outside world could not enter my consciousness.  Couple with that was the fact that I was standing before the very heart of the "mighty Mississippi and unlike the brown, polluted waterway of the St. Louis area where I grew up, this was much more to my liking.  That river that most of us know is fed by Itasca Lake and is a clear, gurgling small stream surrounded by mixed forests and wetlands in central Minnesota.

North Dakota was a place that I have often wanted to see and I was really not sure what to expect.  Before I left I tried to gain some insights of the area over the internet, but really didn't find results that would give me some insight into the state.  What I found was an area of sweeping landscapes, much of it farmed with wheat, canola, sugar beets and sunflower fields dominating the area. In the far northeastern part of the state I really didn't find the old farm structures that I had anticipated, as can be seen in Iowa, but instead most farm acreages were made up of steel buildings, which don't provide much of a photographic subject.  In planning for the trip I was pretty sure that the large landscapes would be in need of some massive weather event to add an impressive backdrop to the landscape and the last day found me ripping my tent stakes out of the ground and running to follow a huge thunderstorm that was heading east.  As luck would have it a wrong turn put me in good position for an hour of stimulating activity...stimulating being the hair on the back of my neck standing at attention!

The prize on this race across North Dakota into Minnesota was the display of 4 different rainbows that were like flashing neon signs, on one minute - off the next made all the more frustrating by the fact that it was never apparent where they would reappear. 

The lesson from this trip, as with many others, is that if a person waits long enough the most fantastic events WILL take place.  In the case of the rainbow shot, I spent a large part of the trip in North Dakota looking for grain elevator subjects for a juried exhibition with the same subject...grain elevators.  I really didn't have much of that subject stored in my computer library and I was getting concerned that I was going to come up empty handed.  After my chase I think I'll be in good shape.

Good people cropped up all along the way, from a Minnesota dairy farmer with great insights about life to a wonderful woman from Winnipeg, Canada that excitedly discussed her experiences with photography seen from behind an 8 X 10 inch view camera.  So many miles and so many wonderful acquaintances and I'm sorry that we're not all neighbors for a lifetime. 

It's easy to get caught up in the news of the day and the atrocities of individuals or groups of misguided individuals, but my travels continually teach me that we are surrounded by a host of very good people, each with lives that parallel ours, with grand children, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters...hard working, loving, people of real substance that make up the better part of this world.  I love every one of them and am grateful for the few minutes we shared together whether wetting our toes in the young part of the Mississippi or pumping gas in Cavalier, North Dakota.