Dream Hunter Photograph

Dream Hunter

Are you a dream hunter or a dream catcher? I think that I’ve always been a hunter of dreams. Being simply a dream catcher was never going to work for me. Maybe it was because the nice dreams avoided me, or else because I was just too independent, but I always felt that it was my job to go searching. Perhaps it is the dream hunter in me that is behind this blog, encouraging me to step outside my comfort zone and break free.  Not free from something, but free to do something that I’ve never tried before. Free to explore new creative routes or perhaps combine old with new, free to rekindle that ancient cavewoman spirit.

The Photograph

I’ve always considered photography as an art form , a way of expressing an emotional reaction to the physical world and all its’ constraints. How can I get across the feelings I get when I look at a particular scene, how can I convey it in a way that makes sense to other people?

For this particular image, shot in Killarney woods, I remember being in awe of the majestic whispering of the trees and how they seemed to tower protectively over the tiny world below. I wanted to convey their uniqueness, their strength and their beauty. I shot the image while lying on the ground, feeling totally at one with the scene above me. I tried to process it sympathetically in order to capture the magic of the moment.

Background

As a child, I think that I would definitely be called a tree hugger! I remember a special tree on the farm where I grew up, a magical tree. I called it ” The Wishing Tree ” and that’s where I went in search of my childhood dreams. Remember, I never expected them to magically fall on my lap, I knew that work was needed to be done in order to make them a reality. So , whenever I was in the mood, I trekked down across the fields and sought out my wishing tree.

I never arrived empty handed. I knew that there was a quid pro quo, so I made sure that my little written request acknowledged the wonder of the tree. Would the tree reciprocate in kind and grant me my wish of  cidona?  Surprisingly, sometimes it did ( My mother is an amazing woman! ).  For anyone who doesn’t recognise the cidona  reference, it was a soft drink very popular in Ireland at the time.

Link

If you would like to see a larger version of the Dream Hunter image, just click onto the image above, or check it out on my flickr page.

Other photos Homeward Bound and Trapped