Skip to main content

Wispy Grass Embrace

A very, very busy highway in the Birmingham area has some beautiful scenery on either side (intermingled with numerous stores, businesses, and restaurants). One day I had two appointments located in buildings on that highway.  

This was one of those days I thought ahead. Even though it would be only about 30 minutes, I knew there would be time to kill... so I brought my camera. It was warm, even though well into November. The sun was shining. I felt fine even in short sleeves.

I started shooting in one area that had a fountain. There were geese and ducks surrounding what was probably a man-made lake (but that didn't make it less beautiful). I took numerous photos from different angles of just that scene before I deciding to see what else I could find.

There were a few interesting looking trees and the leaves hadn't all fallen yet, so I got some images of them. However, I got bored kind of quickly. I decided to go back to the fountain and play with various settings (I'm always learning!) to get different affects of the water. That soon played out so I decided to to try a new location.

After getting back in my car and driving less than a block away, I found something I thought was very interesting. Behind one building there was some kind of wispy, tall feathergrass. Time to explore!

What I found was lovely. There was an autumn leaf stuck in the grass, actually being held up by it. This is where I learned that it is hard to shoot a close-up of a leaf caught in some wispy, tall feathergrass if there's even a tiny bit of wind. I took shot after shot, trying to get the focus point on the leaf and not on the grass. I wanted to blur the grass in front of the leaf while getting the leaf perfectly in focus.

It took a lot of frames but I finally got one I was pleased with. But even more than the technical aspect of capturing that image was what it represented to me.

I have various mental and physical issues. There are so many times that I feel like a leaf trying to hang on to its tree, only to get blown off by the wind. At that point there's no way to control what's going on. The winds would blow me from place to place, tumbling throughout. The wind would sometimes pick me up and then drop me... hard. I would get a hole in me, just like this leaf.

But eventually I would end up being held. Sometimes what was holding me didn't look like much - and each part might not be strong on its own. But a combination of friends, family, and faith has held me through many times I thought I wouldn't make it otherwise.

I am that leaf... and I am held.
            
                                                      (All images by Tracy Riggs Frontz)




All of the images above are available to order as custom prints, fulfilled by a professional lab, at https://NovelPhotos.Instaproofs.com.

If you don’t have time to order today, feel free to take a business card and order later using the middle QR code. The photos will be under “Trussville Library Gallery.”

If you have any questions, email us at NovelPhotos@yahoo.com.

If you want any hand-signed, get in touch with us before ordering. We can direct you to a gallery that doesn't have our digital signatures on them and we can work out what works best for you to get the signature you want.

To order a signed copy of Tracy’s book: Behind the Lens of a Storyteller – My Journey as a Photographer/Writer, go to https://NovelPhotos.instaproofs.com/BehindtheLens Note that shipping is included – be sure to use the coupon code “SHIPPINGINCLUDED.”

Do you need a highly experienced, budget-friendly photographer for your family or business?

 Go to https://NovelPhotos.com to see our work. Use the “Contact Us” page or email us at NovelPhotos@yahoo.com to find out how we can meet your photography needs.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Emerald Fields

 In 2017, my daughter and I were able to go on a trip to Ireland. It was special in many ways. 1 - My daughter turned 18 in the air on the flight to Ireland. Because at least then their legal drinking age was 18, I was able to buy my daughter her first legal drink... twice (I got to do it again here when she turned 21.) 2 - Due to moving back to Birmingham in the middle of my daughter's junior year in high school, we decided that home-schooling her would be better than changing schools for that amount of time. That meant she wouldn't graduate in the traditional sense - no walking across a stage, getting handed a diploma (or piece of paper as a place-holder for the diploma), and moving her tassel from one side to the other. When I was blessed with the resources to do this trip, I planned to hold a surprise graduation in Londonderry, a city in Northern Ireland where we have distant relatives. We were able to have it on a rooftop in the middle of the city and I live-streamed it (b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stage Snapshots

Concert photography is something both my husband and myself really love. The lighting is often amazing and it can be one of the easiest times to get a really great shot. We have probably shot well over a hundred professional musicians at their concerts. I will never forget my first professional concert as a professional photographer - TobyMac. Once we got to the venue, there were issues with locating my press pass (we later came to find out this happens a lot). While we were waiting to get in, I happened to find a YouTube recording of the concert on the same tour a few weeks earlier.  It was extremely helpful. When we finally got the press pass debacle straightened out and the concert started, we already had an idea of where the action would be on the various stages on the arena floor. My then-boyfriend/now-husband didn't have a press pass. (I didn't know to ask for one for each of us.) We didn't know tricks about where to stash our stuff during the concert at that point an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trussville

There isn't much to say about a sign. Instead, I'll tell you how we each got here and share an article I wrote for the "Alabama Magazine." Travis was born in Ohio but moved to Florida when he was young. His brother-in-law got a job in Trussville and he moved with them... and lived in various areas of Birmingham before landing back in Trussville after we married. I was born in Birmingham. I met a man who lived in East TN. We fell in love, got married, and I moved there.... but then we divorced. I stayed for years, but about ten years ago, I left that beautiful area to move back to Birmingham - this time to Trussville.  Here I became a professional photographer and writer. I met my wonderful husband. I began learning ASL again and became part of a Deaf community. I started playing guitar on my church's worship team after a couple of decades of not playing.  I'm thankful we're here. Now, "A Trip to Trussville", published in the Alabama Magazine, Mar...
Post a Comment
Read more