Has my well gone dry?

Late summer: Hot days, cooler nights; school is back in session, vacations are over, and boats sit idle, awaiting one last turn around the bay, before being pulled in for winter.

Mid-August. August has always been a hard month. I lost my mom in early August, and 20 years later, my dad. My sister lost her first husband in August. While grieving has passed into fond memories of them, it is still a month that is known internally without even looking at a calendar. Whenever the crickets begin to buzz/sing, I recall my mother who always loved that sound. To her it signified the end of summer, the shift towards autumn.

It’s a month where I usually found myself abroad - or in Alaska, the past several years, busy and having fun, lots of it. This year, Jed and I spent most of our summer in the Pacific Northwest and northern California. The days have been very hazy and smoky, and landscapes have just not been manifesting with any great light no matter where we’ve been. The weeks of extreme heat in has caused things to bloom and go past earlier than usual. When I look out my van windows, everything is baked, scorched leaves and flower heads gone to seed before they should have. It’s been hard to get excited about things, if I’m honest, and while I know there are beautiful images to be made in any season, I haven’t felt very productive with my camera? And, do I have to be? I push myself hard, during the peaks of spring, early summer, autumn and winter.

Would anyone miss me if I didn’t make a great photo to post in the month of August? Doubtful, but I would miss me, I would miss the creative juice that feeds my soul. Yet perhaps it’s not meant to be.

Perhaps it’s a time for me to take a little break. I mentioned a surprise twist in the plans in my recent post about the normal post being delayed. My partner was admitted to the hospital with some pain, and all the diagnostics that came with it have left me scared, stressed, and empty of creative juice. At some point I may write more about it, but not yet, as Jed is a private kind of guy, so just send out positive healing rays in our direction.

I may not be making many photographs now, understandably, yet I can still remember August, and what it means to me: a month of the best, juicy tomatoes, and yummy ripe peaches, abundant harvests of colorful peppers. I used to love hitting up the famers markets near where we lived. Now, we find them here and there as we travel. Oh, and the sweet sound of those crickets outside my bunk window in the van at night - that’s August to me.

I can recall the sound of the brook we dipped into the day before we went to the hospital, and feel the coolness as the water moved gently over my overheated body. It felt great. I may not have photographs to show that, but trust me, I have been wanting to lay down in a stream for about a month and we finally got the chance!

Even in the hazy, lazy days of late summer, there is beauty to be found, and memories of summer to be recalled. I will hold on to those going forward.

Thank you for being here, and supporting my creative habit - I mean passion, lol! I will be sharing more helpful photography ideas and tips in the coming posts, but for now, I felt the need to share this.

Keep photographing, keep sharing your vision with the world,