raindrop

This photograph was captured in Juneau, Alaska last summer.



The days there during the summer are different…it is light there all day. The sun plays this childlike game with the horizon as it pretends like it is going to rest for the night…only to run again to the top of the sky. This particular day it was rainy…and cold.

I remember I was peopled out…do you ever get like that? It had been a long time since I had been alone and so I went for a walk. I had my camera under my rain jacket so that it wouldn’t get wet.

I remember I was pretending that I was Peter from Chronicles of Narnia and I was on this quest to find Aslan. I never did find him that day.

The rain there was funny…just as fast as it would start…it would stop. It reminded me of the weather in the movie Back To The Future…remember when Doc had the weather timed to his wristwatch.

I was on my way back to camp, after I had been exploring for some time. I found myself walking through a field with these plants that were dark green in color and they were all over the place. I took a brake from walking (I have to take lots of breaks when I walk...maybe it's a mixture of cigars and pipes) and it just so happened I was in the middle of this field. While I was looking around I noticed that there was water in these plants. I guess I should say on these plants. It was strange because the water wasn’t falling out of the plants…rather it was resting right in the center. It didn’t make sense. I mean you could see the openings through the water and yet it didn’t fall through.

Because of the height of the plants I had to get on my knees to take this picture. One thing I have noticed while taking pictues is that sometimes all you have to do to change a photograph from an alright photo to a beautiful photo is just look at it from different viewpoints...in this case it was different heights. The closer I got to this plant the more beautiful it became...not because the plant changed, but rather I changed.

So thats how beauty was found in this photo...it was found in change...

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

childlike

This was such a great day. I remember it well, I remember I was with some friends…some old…some new…we were at the ocean on Coronado Island. We always go to this place right in front of The Hotel Del. It is great being on this particular stretch of sand, reason being it is right in the flight pattern of all the fighter jets as they come in to land. They always come screaming by and then they bank to the left only to make this huge circle as they prepare to land.

The day was prefect for being around the ocean. I remember the sky being really clear and the air smelt so good. So fresh and clean! This is strange I know, one might even use the word odd, but for some reason I get really scared of getting burned. Maybe it is the red hair…I don’t know. Because of this I always wear long sleeve shirts and a hat while being in the presence of the sun. There is this grocery store in town that sells $9.99 umbrellas and so I pick one of those up so I can sit under it and read. Books are great by the ocean…not heavy books just fun books, books that you can walk away from and not be worried you are going to forget everything. I remember at that time I was reading through the Chronicles of Narnia series.

I don’t know about you but when I read I have to have other things going on around me. I get so distracted and my mind wonders if it is to quiet. Because of this I tend to listen to music and go to public places if I want to read. The music has to be instrumental…it can’t have words in it. And so with the sound of instruments and people around it calms my mind down enough so that I can concentrate on reading. It is like this crazy equalizer. I remember being introduced to The Album Leaf and so I was listening to them while I was reading that day.

I remember this little girl…





I remember looking up and seeing her. She was with her dad and they were walking down to the edge of the water as it rushed up the sand towards them. She was carrying this little tiny purse while she was holding her dads hand. She was very timid of the water and didn’t want to be disconnected from her father.

As I was watching them I decided to grab my camera and I started to walk towards them. I really wanted to try and see if I could catch in some way the manner in which they interacted with each other (which isn’t normal because I don’t like taking pictures of people). So I walked over and I started to hold the camera up to my face as if I was taking pictures of all sorts of random things (when really I wasn’t even taking any pictures). As I was doing this I was watching this father and daughter through the lens of the camera.

I noticed that this little girl was talking to her father…I don’t know what she was saying to her dad (I wish I did). I remember seeing her give her little purse to her dad to hold. Then she started to walk down to where the water was until eventually it consumed her feet. It was great…the water was so far from getting her dress wet but she still naturally picked up one side of her dress so that it wouldn’t get wet.

As she stood there in the water she seemed to pause and stare. And that is where I captured her. Staring out and into the ocean. She seemed to be taking in all its beauty. Almost as if she new there was something more…something that she didn’t know the full extent of just yet.

I loved getting to watch this father and daughter laugh together and hold hands. And even though I missed the photograph of them together I still captured something that day. I just don’t know the full extent just yet.

I guess some things are just left to children.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

every photograph has a story

I love to take pictures...just not of people. For some reason people clutter up the beauty in a photograph in my mind (now I do understand that there are exceptions to this thought and so I am not speaking of all photographs).

But have you ever noticed that once you take a picture life goes back to normal?

What I mean by that is there is always someone who is pulling the people together for the photograph (what does this person ever do with all those pictures anyways??) and so either by force or by their will people cram together…only to wait for the count down…1…2…(then everyone smiles)…3…and the picture is captured. And once we see the flash or the camera is moved in a downward motion the smiles on our faces tend to go away. Not because we aren’t happy but rather we are done posing. I wonder when ‘the smile’ became the norm for a picture pose. Remember those old pictures you see of people, the black and white ones, who have this straight face while they are being photographed? Those pictures are kind of scary because the whole family will be standing next to each other all crammed together and all their faces have that same straight face to them. Do you ever wonder if when the picture was done being taken they all immediately started laughing at the fact that they had to stand still for so long and not smile??

Anyways…I love photography. The nature kind...you know the one without people..

I became aware of this like 4 years ago. I was on a trip and I had my camera with me and it just so happened that the sun was calling it a day. Off into the distance there was this boat that was crossing the horizon and because the sun was behind the boat it made the boat appear to be black like a silhouette or a shadow. I remember looking around to see if anyone else could see what I was looking at (but of course not, they were all taking pictures of each other instead!) and I remember thinking how beautiful this scene looked right in front of me.

I had my camera around my neck so that if anyone were wondering who the tourist was they wouldn’t have any trouble guessing.

And so I picked up my camera and pointed it toward this silhouette riding above the ocean.

I captured it…and the rest is history…

I get really mad at myself because I lost that picture and I have no way of recovering it. But I guess not every picture is meant to be shared. Some are just left for me to remember. It’s funny because every time I think about that picture the sun gets brighter, the colors in the sky that sunset become more vibrant, and the sailboat seems to transcend water.

So I want to share my passion with you…I may not be the best...but that’s okay. I love it nevertheless.

Every photograph has a story…and stories are meant to be told…

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts