COVID-19: Dear Photographers

By Mina Thevenin, LCSW

Now is the time to live a lifestyle of prevention, of health and wellness—in mind, body, and spirit.

Photography is a part of our wellness in all. As most photographers understand, the camera is our faithful companion: always ready, enduring, doesn’t judge, is patient, and often is an extension of ourselves in the photographic process.

Forget what you have been taught about photography. It is of little value, except for the language you have learned with your camera. I am sure you are already fluent in its languages and the camera is already a natural extension of yourself.  Shapes, colors, light, shadow—ideas born and yet to be born through your eye—resonate within you. Just for you. I don’t know that it matters if someone years from now sees the same thing you have imaged. Maybe some will. Maybe some won’t. Our tool of photography is our gift to ourselves. It keeps us grounded, creative, and healthy, as we discover (or are reminded) that as we come together, we are an adaptable and resilient peoples after all.

Lastly…

Dear Photographers,

I hope you will let the language of your images speak to the poetry in your heart. May you continue to find the comfort and joy even during this time of challenge in our lives, and in the lives of humanity as a whole. May your language be unencumbered by the likes and dislikes of those who follow and unfollow, a stifling and dangerous game that traps the great artist unawares.  May when you close your eyes—your life poetry fills your dreams, and that your poetic images live through your photography and all is— as a reflection of yourself and a reminder of hope.

—Mina Thevenin

       WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER, FALL

The only sound is the sound of snow falling upon water and its tiny utterance of puh.  


Great Blue Heron in Snow
Photographer Julie Holloway

Photographer, would you trade places with me if you could—you flying low above the grasses and me following stealthily with the round dark eye? 


Short-eared Owl
Photographer Anja Warrot

The secret life of Saguaro when no one is looking.

 


Saguaro in Snow
Photographer Linda Covey

Just when I think it is ending, the night sky-music and its symphony of colors begins again and again.


Alaskan Barn and Northern Lights
Photographer Richard S. Wright, Jr.

All that remains and what might have been is remembered here in the pines. 


Rocky Mountain Homestead
Photographer Mina Thevenin

Outstretched rays of light roll into shades of oncoming purple. Darkness gives way to night, while dawn is just beyond the horizon.

Winter Sunset Over Snow Covered Yellowstone Lake
 Photographer Frank Walker

Going into the quiet of  winter’s morning there is only light, snow and breath.  


Coyote Walking in Snowy Meadow
Photographer J.R. Douglass

Oh—The joy of spring!

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: what if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawakened Earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

—Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Walnut Leaf
Photographer Hans Franken

March and April resurrects the forest cathedral, wherein I lie upon a carpet of soft wildflowers and gaze into the yellow canopy of sycamore and ash.
I make a wreath for my hair and a necklace mantle of yellows, greens and whites.
Both adorn my window sill now, alongside sea-glass, shells and rocks— treasures of bobby-dazzlers I hold in wonder—just for me.


Spring Cathedral

Photographer Mina Thevenin

Invisible to the passerby,
I am yellows.
I am grasses.
I am flowers.
I am peeps in real life.
Roar.


Baby Crane, On My Way Home
Photographer Barbara Hoeldt

What am I, if not beauty in its purest form?


Purple Wildflower
Photographer Nelin Reisman

Poor Peter left his new blue jacket behind.
“I think he might have got away altogether if he had not unfortunately run into a gooseberry net, and got caught by the large buttons on his jacket. It was a blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new.” —Excerpt from The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter


Where is Mr. McGregor?

Photographer Mina Thevenin

Springtime in the arid plains, there is not an abundance of sticks for nest- making. One uses what one has: horse hair. Oh, what I’d give for the horse whose hair whence it came!


Horse Hair Nest
Photographer Linda Covey

Every morning before casting the net there is always the same dream… Today, is the day, I will catch a lifetime.


Fisherman
Photographer Anjan Ghosh

Even when photographing the same thing everyday, there is the new. The light. Colors. The beginning of something original. 



Sky Reflecting in the Sands of Koki Beach in Hana, Mau’i
Photographer Doug Oglesby

On the path of peace, so do roads converge.



Prayer Time
Photographer Krishnan Kalpat

What seems simple & beautiful to one is an act full of intention to another.



Hawks in Flight
Photographer Dave Meachum

Quietly turns the colors of fall and bows the resolve of  many a person—ready or not.


Moose in Fall.
Photographer Jon Jacobs

The good will of spirit takes “no” as an opportunity  for “yes”. 



Man Surfing
Photographer Justin Carr

Before we journey south, I gaze one last time upon the nesting banks of what was once our season of rebirth.  


Autumn in Finland
Photographer Tapio Haaja

Walk unshod along the foamy surf and shore. It is a kaleidoscope of  time… footprints erased, impressions that sink bare feet into the sand where I am, and footsteps yet to be.



Reflections
Photographer Nelin Reisman

What life was like before the virus and what it is to be after the virus… Using our trials and tribulations, our challenges and determinations throughout the seasons of life we have the opportunity to improve upon what we were and who we can be.

Find out more about coping through Corona Virus by Mina Thevenin, LCSW @ https://www.kentuckianacounseling.org/coronoavirus-strategies-for-adjustment-resiliency-and-hope/

See YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/y80GvSv9mvo

 
PHOTOGRAPHY WORLD