Birds of Love
The cycle of nature is in constant flux. One moment there are birds hovering above, looking as if they are about to kiss in mid air (see Bird Photo Gallery Brendanbenfeeney.com). Now, the swallows that make their way north to Cape Cod in late spring, and stay to dine on tasty insects during the summer………are heading south for winter. I will miss their dances in the endless sky over Cape Cod.
How many times have we had the urge to move towards the sun, migrate to a warmer climate, and bask beneath a blue cloudless sky as winter approaches?
My latest photo shoot was of a team of men harvesting cranberries in Massachusetts. The harvesting cranberries signals change. Autumn is approaching. Crimson berries float to the surface of flooded bogs. It is a spectacular sight. I did climb through a very, very narrow opening in a chain link fence to capture this event. Strike that. It a very very small tear in the fence–sort of like Parent’s Night at a Kindergarten. Visualize trying to sit in a seat made for a 5 year old.
I took many images of a man, in dark brown hip waders, rounding up cranberries as if he was trying to make unruly Wyoming horses behave. A lot of labor goes into harvesting cranberries. It is difficult work. Note to my blog readers……….appreciate the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving as you pass it to Uncle Fester then past Aunt Tillie. I will post my cranberry harvest pictures in December.
Now is the time to act. Most of the bird photographs are close to sold out. I suggest you go to Paypal and order from this category. Once an edition series is sold out, I do not reprint. Also look at my post card sets. They are available and more affordable.
I want to thank Doug Varone of Doug Varone Dance Company, New York, New York for his his kind e-mail. Doug is embarking on a series on new works. I highly recommend attending one of his dance company’s innovative performances in New York City, Portland, Maine, Boston/Cambridge, MA, and San Francisco, CA. He has other dates noted on his website. Doug’s choreography often reminds me of the motion of birds in flight–ethereal, lingering is space. In other works, members of his dance company swing their arms, leap with wild abandon, then drop to the ground—similar to a life changing event that “sneaks upon you—hard on the right—like a speeding automobile on the L. A. Freeway.”
I travel south this weekend to photograph a particular city at night. I too am like the swallows of Cape Cod, longing for flight and a warmer setting to create new art. I will bask in the glow of neon on wet pavement. I will capture the glow of a streetlamp, humming and buzzing to n0 one but I.
Brendan Ben Feeney