Shabbat for many Jews is both a place and a time - a portion of the week for rest, rejuvenation, family, friends, and unplugging. For some that means a day at Temple, for others it’s a dinner table with Roast Chicken or a walk around the neighborhood.
A hike in the Catskills in Autumn is like Shabbat on growth hormones for me. There is something magical about the area as trees transform and shed their leaves, the water from springs is crisp and surreally refreshing, and campfires lift up smells of burgers, beans, and marshmallows across miles of loosely populated towns and mountains.
For over a decade, my wife and I have come out to the Catskills for a few long weekends during the fall. From our earliest adventures when we could barely start a fire to our latest where we know to cary an axe for making good tinder, some things have definitely changed. I once brought a 12 inch cast iron pan to try to cook rice over a dull campfire - a failed attempt whose crunchy, raw mash-up we dubbed “kosh mosh”. Now bison burgers and burritos are on the menu. Bougie, I know.
But I’ve also learned to see the forest in different ways with my camera. Many of my sketch photos are still cluttered - filled with unremarkable and indistinct patterns of nature. But I’ve learned that they’re part of the process of seeing. Part of searching for something that is worth capturing and sharing with others. And as I’ve improved how I see (and seek), I’ve also taken time to refine my craft - to embrace filters to better realize what I see before me in ways the sensor alone cannot. To push what I see to new creative bounds - playing with concepts of time and light beyond the click of a shutter.
I feel fortunate and incredibly grateful to live near such extraordinary natural beauty. I hope you feel some of what it has to offer in these captures.
