Some platinum-palladium prints from the Côte d’Azur with reflection on connections with place and the history the land holds.

The hairs on the nape of my neck were tingling this past week as a breeze of fresh ideas swept across the nation. The pit in my stomach has gone away, although I know enough not to be complacent. Things do seem to be shifting though, and there is a new energy emerging in the zeitgeist.

Continue reading for more images and reflections.

The importance of having room to dream cannot be underestimated. Grateful to Aline Smithson and Samantha Johnston for organising this amazing retreat, and to all the other women I spent the week with. The door to seeing and new ways of being was opened. Also grateful to Paulo Kellerman for asking me to participate in fortografar palavras, the project I contributed the first photograph in my blog post to. It is always inspiring to connect with other people in creative disciplines, as well as other lens based artists.

Contemplating what matters most, our roots, and our response to challenges while hiking along the banks of the Rocky Fork Creek.

Holding onto the earth against all odds and lessons about our change, unavoidable obstacles, and the way of Grace.

Important lessons learned in desert ecosystems, White Tank Mountains Regional Park

A Suite of Images and Haiku Foreshadowing Spring

Honoring the survivors in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest as part of the Global Earth Exchange organized by Trebbe Johnson and Radical Joy for Hard Times

An invitation to listen to the land while hiking on the Bartram Trail to Scaly Mountain near Highlands, NC.

Images from the section of the Bartram Trail from Wallace Branch to William’s Pulpit

This blog contains some black and white images of columbines, calla lilies, other flowers and grasses from the Jardin Botánica Marimutra in Costa Brava, Spain. Though I did photograph many images in color as well, these struck my heart due to the way they interacted with the light, and also because of their beautiful lines. Appreciating beauty is a radical act that we could all benefit from doing more. Beauty instills our hearts with hope.

We discovered several bloodroot flowers on our hike on the Bartram Trail from Wallace Branch to William’s Pulpit the other day. This one was particularly lovely, so I made a soft image with focus stacking to connect with the heart of the plat and its energy. Bloodroots, or Sanguinaria Canadensis, are considered to be sun worshippers, as they bloom when there is little shade in the forest. Bartram was enamored with these flowers and sent them to his European patrons. Though their roots are poisonous, they are sometimes prescribed as headache remedies and stimulants in small doses.