Beyond the Fields We Know

In The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Lord Dunsany, wrote about magic beyond the fields we know. You step out into the ordinary, everyday fields that you see all the time. Maybe these fields are right next door to your house in suburbia. Willy, nilly you may be swept into a magical realm where nothing is ever the same.

I take Dunsany’s fantasy as a metaphor for photography. If you are willing to look carefully, and are open to the spirit of adventure, you never know what magical territory you may visit. If you have been changed by the experience, well that is no affair of mine.

Beyond the Fields We Know

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We were on family vacation in a rental house in Sea Ranch. Our house was in a suburb of vacation houses. (Although Sea Ranch isn’t supposed to be suburban, I know a suburb when I see one.) Across the street was a brown field. The fog came in, and on our last morning I used my macro lens to explore the magic that lies beyond the fields we know.

[105mm f/2.8 macro lens, 157.5mm in 35mm equivalent terms, 36mm extension tube, +4 diopters close-up filter, 1/3 of a second at f/32 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. texbrandt

    2 Sep 2007

    Today was our first relatively cool morning 65 in some time. People driving by the creek where we walked probably wondered what some nut was doing out there with his camera, nothing worth taking a picture of on that creek. How wrong they were, from the reflection of the sunflowers in the water to a large leaf in the dewy grass back lit by the morning a small bee half covered by pollen. Indeed, “If you are willing to look carefully, and are open to the spirit of adventure, you never know what magical territory you may visit.”

    I have indeed been changed. On another day we may visit the country side or go to some exotic garden, but for this day walking the creek was magic enough.
    Soft wind making
    leaf talk
    conversations
    green on green

    thanks for sharing the magic

    Robert

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