Thanks Beast!

As I mentioned in the post about transitioning to Capture One, Ann and I are using that as an opportunity to re-evaluate our image libraries.  Of course, we’re evaluating images we’ve worked on, learning what we can from those images and discovering aspects to them we hadn’t previously appreciated.  And then there are the images we hadn’t recognized during the first go-around but now see why we made the image in the first place.  But there’s something else, much less photographic, that we’ve gotten out of the image review process.   

Going through the library of images, I’ve felt incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit so many amazing places - in Oregon and elsewhere.  And even though I’ve gone through only a couple of years so far, I am frequently humbled and in awe of the beauty so prevalent in nature.  It’s not about the photographs themselves, it’s about the experiences of being in these places.  I am a lucky guy.

This weekend I was walking by Ann’s computer and she had a photograph of Beast on her monitor.  And that got me thinking again, and appreciating, what Beast has meant for our travels.  Beast has made it possible to take off on a whim, and to pretty much be able to hang out wherever we want to.  She’s allowed us, even encouraged us, to go down roads we normally would not have even considered before.  It’s hard to describe regaining that sense of exploration you once had as a child but pretty much lost at some stage.  The feeling of not giving into fear and that willingness to find out what’s over the next hill.

Sure, its not as if any of these trails are untraveled.  But they’re definitely less traveled and so very often they wind up leaving us by ourselves doing things we love in places we’ve come to love.  We pretty much know that if we have to put it into 4WD, we’re not going to find too many others going down that track.  There is nothing quite like being all alone in nature, photographing and enjoying the environment around you.

There’s also the fact that Ann and I often enjoy photographing in places that aren’t on photographers’ gotta-hit-bucket-list.  Not that those places aren’t often stunningly beautiful, but rather it’s that so many other places are also beautiful, though often in very different ways.  And Beast lets us get out to discover those places, and to take our time to get to know the landscape in relative peace and quiet.

So this is a post of gratitude, to thank Beast for taking us on our journeys and making it so easy for us to do what we love!

Thanks Beast!