~ bethany ~
in my years of work, even going back to the days of film, this shoot stands out as one of a handful of favorites. as i reviewed, sorted, selected, edited, i was captured by the fullness within this young woman and at this realized her life was opening wider kind of like the land we were photographing on. these images document a moment in the life continuum, the unique place in time which is just between child and adult. as you will see in what follows, bethany is multi~gifted. she has not lost her head to her gifts, but instead has developed heart areas that make her a most balanced young person. without doubt she will do well. and i will someday see her pieces in galleries and rejoice in knowing ~ her.
our session took place on a very pretty, private, article of land. once found i visited from roadside several times and just took my time going past. admittedly i also stopped and photographed from the road and spoke with the woman across the street. i thought without doubt that we had come to a simple neighborly type of relationship. we knew each other’s name; i had expressed my love for what i saw across the street and my hope to photograph on that property someday. she pointed out the gate and the neighbor of ownership, she showed me the natural spring and the path to cross over the water. i asked about her wheat fields and she explained how the planting goes. farm life and such… pretty picture.
within minutes of arriving early on the morning of bethany’s shoot i was met by this same woman ~ my neighbor person. she was angry i was back, she was going to call the police if we didn’t move our cars to the other side of the road. stunned. silenced. quickly trying to think of what was the right thing to do… i reminded her it was just ‘me, sally’. “i know who you are” she said…” i think you are obsessed with that barn.”…i could go on. we went quietly on with our appointment. within five minutes of crossing over into the beautiful land of my ‘oz’ a young man {son of owner whom i had never met} came over the hill on his 4 wheel and welcomed us. he offered any assistance we needed. he smiled and laughed a little at what we had just experienced and said, “don’t worry, she has always been jealous”. he had been up before dawn to move horses and cattle so the land was safe… i could go on.
sometimes we get such visual lessons of biblical truths… we literally stood on the road between jealousy and generosity. we started at the creek bed and white rock… then moved up the hill to the high grasses and on toward the beautiful barn. cs lewis wrote in his 7th book of narnia, the last battle, “further up and further in“. i felt a little of that on this side of the road. so with a full and grateful heart, in peace and almost sanctuary, i photographed the lovely ~ bethany!
~ i hope you enjoy my view ~