Thursday, March 18, 2010

(Day 77) The toil of their hands

I went for a stroll on our land today - again we were blessed by sunshine and warm temperatures. I wanted to re-visit and photograph a few places were there was evidence of those who came before us, who lived here and worked this land many years ago. As I stood near these places I wondered who the people were who had worked so hard to clear the land of rocks, and built split-rail cedar fences around hundreds of acres. This area is known for black flies and mosquitoes - how they must have been tormented as they laboured under a hot sun engulfed by swarms of pesky biting and stinging bugs. They moved on long ago (see Day 62) and only remnants of their passing through remain.

"There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow."  (Ecclesiastes 1:11)

(18-55mm  f8  1/100 sec  ISO400)
















(18-55mm  f8  1/30 sec  ISO400)

7 comments:

Unknown said...

These are beautiful Rick! I love to see stuff like this out in the wilderness, it really hits home how isolated those who came before us must have been.

B&W was a great choice!

Rick said...

Thanks Krista. I agree - we really take our conveniences for granted e.g. driving 25km into town for window shopping - unheard of 100 years ago!

joey said...

I hear you, Rick. I live in an area, rich in Native American history. On a street in my village called Indian Mound, I tread in prayer, walking over the bones/lives of those that came before me. Those of us blessed to hear the heartbeat of the earth, travel with camera near.

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

I love your use of B&W and light. Very nice.

Rick said...

@joey - I like how you put that - "heartbeat of the earth". It does require different senses.

@Kyria - thank you.

darlin said...

Rick, you take fantastic photos. These are a real gem. I love how you connected with the subject, I can feel it through your choice of words and the photos here.

Thanks for the gentle reminder, I really do tend to take things for granted occasionally. Not too often, but I'm human... what can I say? I'll chat with the big guy a bit later about that! :-)

Rick said...

@darlin - thanks for your kind words. I knew what I wanted to shoot today but the subject usually isn't clear in my mind until I start shooting. Sometimes I have a concept in mind, and the words for it seem to come once I start writing the post.

And about the reminder - that was as much for me as anyone else! I need that daily.