[General Note: A month
ago I mentioned a trip that I made out to the
Yellow Dog Plains north of Marquette to photograph a very beautiful
area that is the proposed site
of a sulfide mining operation. This last week
the Sierra Club made a web page available, http://michigan.sierraclub.org/mining.shtml
about this issue (you might recognize some
of the images there, they
first appeared on this list...). The web page provides a great deal of
information about this type of
mining and several public workshops, meetings,
and a chance for public
comments on the rules that are being created to protect us and our
environment. From November 21st to December 7th these workshops and
meetings are planned at a variety of locations, including Grand Rapids,
Lansing and Ann Arbor. The deadline for public comments ends December
19th. Think about it,
in the time it takes you to read an article and
write an email you could have a positive influence on your government
beyond merely voting. For more information look
at the web page and/or
contact Rita Jack at rita.jack@sierraclub.org]
For the better part of a week, well actually the worse part of a
week, I've been stuck inside ill. The only exploring that I've
been able to do is is in my mind. I'm going to suggest some
ideas here
that may seem really odd, but bear with me for a bit... even in mental
exploration there are interesting things to find by looking where no
one else is going.
Biologists are often warned against anthropomorphism - ascribing human
characteristics to other animals. This is to prevent the bias of our
own experiences from interfering with observations
of animal behavior
that might be motivated by different reasons than we expect. But
at the same time, by not anthropomorphizing we promulgate another bias,
that humans are capable
of drives, motivations and feelings that other
animals are not.
About a month ago I was up near Big Bay in the U.P. working on the
project mentioned above. In the distance the Yellow Dog River threaded
it's way through the landscape, even though
I couldn't see the river
itself I knew where it was by the line of trees along it's banks. I
decided which hill had the very best view of the scene, and I hiked out
to it to set up my tripod and
camera. When I got to the rise I jumped a
deer out of it's "bed" on the same hill side.
A week later I was 400 miles away and photographing a tiny, but
beautiful stream that flows into the Hodenpyl Dam Pond, south of
Mesick. Along the banks of the little
brook I found the bones
of a doe. Did she purposely choose this lovely spot to die at? Later in
the day I looked
out on a ridge, decided where the most appealing spot was, and
hiked
there to make an image only to have a buck leap out of his bed and trot
out of sight.
Two weeks later I was photographing along Poplar Creek in Wexford
county. There was a spot on the water where a maple tree had a branch
stretched across the water and the
red leaves were back light over the
sparkling water. It was spectacular! While I was setting up the shot
three does crossed the creek at that spot...
In each case I picked what seemed to me to be the most beautiful spot,
and there was a deer there already. I know there could be any number of
reasons for a deer to be in a particular
spot, anything from wanting
the vantage point to pure chance. But what I wonder is if they might
not have been there, at least partially, for the same reason as me,
because of the aesthetics.
When I was a kid there was a controversy over whether animals were
intelligent. Now it is generally accepted that animals have a wide
variety of intelligence. Earlier this year the movie
March of the Penguins elicited a discussion about whether animals
are capable of love. It seems to me to be a case of "why deny the
obvious". They show affection, nurture, protect and
sacrifice for - sounds like love to me. Any of us with pets or
who
have seen the tenderness that some animals raise their young would be
inclined to believe that there is a spectrum of love
of which animals are capable. It might be different than the love we
experience, but love none the less.
What about aesthetics? What reason do we have to believe that animals
don't have an appreciation for beauty? Their "tastes" are certainly
different from our own. But we already know that
everything from birds to fish to toads select mates based on
preferences in songs, dances, movement even croaking - a wide variety
of aesthetic choices I would say. It appears to me that animals
do see beauty and exhibit tastes in each other, so why not believe that
they are capable of seeing beauty elsewhere too?
I have a friend who likes to tease me by telling that photography in
general, and mine in particular, is not art. For me it is not a matter
of showing art, it is a matter of sharing beauty. I think that
life is more meaningful, fuller and worthwhile when we experience the
beauty that surrounds us, in our environment and in each other.
"
The exceeding beauty of the earth, in her splendor of life, yields
a new thought with every petal. The hours when the mind is absorbed by
beauty are the only hours when we really
live. All else is illusion or mere endurance." -
Richard
Jefferies
Charles St. Charles III
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