Shoulder season

Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.

Winnie the Pooh

I previously extolled the virtues of winter photography, but photography is no “one trick pony” - there are incredible images to be captured at every time of the year. That includes, most emphatically, what the travel industry names as those in between times, generally described as the off peak periods between the high and low seasons. In short, the shoulder seasons. If you should Google the term, not surprisingly, what you find is entry after entry dissecting in excrutiating detail every strategy, dodge, trick, evasion and advisory on how to continue to enjoy the best of high season travel, but without the crowds and, most importantly, at discounted prices. Always rushing to check the next box on the bucket list. Looking for inspiration about the uniqueness and beauty to be found in such slower periods? In my experience, sadly, expect to hear crickets and not much else.

What I find looking through my camera lens in the shoulder seasons seems often to be a mash up of the best of both high and low seasons. Vibrant colors emerging in first new growth juxpaposed, if you are lucky enough in your composition, with muted reminders of the prior spent season’s die off. Not sputtering, lingering, last gasps of summer, or tentative, teasing, not quite ready to launch spring bloom, but a special time to be enjoyed and contemplated in its own right. A time to stand with one foot planted in the past and the other leaning into the future. While a scene of an eye popping field of blue or yellow spring flowers, or a panorama of every possible shade of red deciduous leaves turning in autumn can be mesmerizing, these compositions often leave me feeling wanting. They can leave me feeling not grounded and almost voyeuristic, living just in the moment and not appreciative of the wider picture woven by seasons rolling by in succession. In New England, for example, the hoards that swarm every fall to chase the turning tree colors are often called appropriately, but not affectionately, leaf peepers. Taking the long view and observing the natural world on an extended and regular basis does not have a catchy turn of phrase to describe it. Winnie the Pooh maybe came close to capturing the essence of practicing being deliberate and (to use a current, overworked concept) mindful.

It may seem like a buzzkill to some, but in my mind the tortoise beats the hare every time.