It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? I haven’t forgotten this – it’s just been hard to find the time and energy to get something worthwhile done. But I’m still here!
A long time back, I was browsing various photography blogs and I stumbled upon a post by a male photographer who was wondering why he rarely saw any female landscape photographers. The comments were illustrative and almost completely fell into one of two categories. On one side were the sexist explanations that “women are social creatures and therefore can’t handle the solitary nature of landscape photography/spending long hours alone in the field” and/or that women aren’t strong enough to carry all the necessary equipment while hiking to scenic spots. Based on names/profile pictures, those comments were coming from men (not the best way to determine gender, I know).
The other side of the commentary were mostly self-identified women photographers who pointed out two big obstacles for them. One was time, or more precisely, the lack thereof. They talked about how they worked all day and then came home to more responsibilities – cooking, cleaning, helping kids with homework, running kids back and forth between various extracurriculars, etc. It was hard to find time for themselves and the hours of commitment driving to trailheads, hiking, taking photos, hiking back, and driving home was almost impossible to manage on a regular basis. (The other was safety, and I’m going to address that in another post, so stay tuned!)
And that’s something I’ve been experiencing myself. I’ve always been busy, especially during the week. It used to be that every other weekend, however, I could take most of the day for myself and spend my time driving to all sorts of trails and enjoying the sights and sounds of the trail. I loved winter hikes – as cold as it is, there’s a lot of beauty in the snow and often the trails aren’t as crowded.
Things changed, however. Due to scheduling changes, I no longer have free weekends. And while I love going on hikes with my kids, it’s not nearly the same as going on my own (for one thing, it’s a lot harder to convince them to go for the hours-long hikes I prefer – especially in the cold – and they don’t really understand why I stop and spend forever trying to get the right picture). We also often bring our dogs for those walks and that really interferes with my ability to take a steady shot!
I’ve been trying to take advantage of any moments I can get though. During the recent cold snap, I had the chance to spend a few hours at the Lake Erie Bluffs. The lake was completely frozen over and the snow and ice and mist truly made it feel like I was standing at the edge of the world. It was such a dramatic change from all my other visits there. Without the crash of the waves, it was silent, except for the mournful sound of the wind.
Now we’re getting into spring and suddenly the trails are loud with birds singing, squirrels and chipmunks running through the brush, and – though we can’t actually hear it – I swear that the growth of plants and budding of trees is adding to the sounds of life.
So while I wish I was doing more, I’m glad to have what I do. I’ll try to be better about posting here and as always, thank you for reading!
