I heard a great interview with photographer Jim Brandenburg on MPR's "Midmorning" program today titled "Preserving the Prairie".  In the interview, Brandenburg talked about how for him, the prairie landscape is the most beautiful.  He's traveled around the world and has seen many beautiful and picturesque areas, but it's the prairie that draws him back.  He believes that for him, this type of landscape is the most beautiful because it's the one that he grew up with, the one that became the foundation upon which he compares when considering beauty.

I've often thought about the same thing.  When I drive through Central Minnesota and see the rolling hills, grassy pastures, plowed or planted fields, it is the landscape that I find the most moving.  When I've visited other parts of the world that are known for their beauty and I expected to find that it was even more beautiful than the landscape that was familiar.  The ocean, mountains, desert - they are all beautiful, but to me nothing is more beautiful than the area in which I grew up and now live.


Dad and Maggie at the Farm, December 2006

While Brandenburg and I appear to agree on this point, there is one huge difference between us.  I've never been able to capture on film or canvas the feeling I get when I look at the landscape.  I can't capture the roundness, the depth of field, the way the lines come together to create motion.  When I try it becomes flat, compressing the feeling of distance into two dimensions.  Brandenburg's photographs are fantastic - they are filled with color, movement and light.

I'll admit, I've never been able to get the hang of photography.  I really thought I would.  I thought that for me it would combine art with the technical and I would just get how to set the camera to capture the view before me.  But it doesn't come that easily for me, and I'm not patient enough to wade my way through it.  I've abandoned my nice 35mm camera for a digital camera that I leave on the auto setting.  So for now, I'm just going to keep taking pictures and see what I come up with. 

My parents farm is the perfect place to try it out.  Like Brandenburg, they're dedicated to bringing back the prairie.  The farm that my great-grandfather homesteaded is now being restored to its original state.  They've planted native prairie grasses, dug potholes, and planted trees to attract wildlife.  And luckily for us, my dad is more than happy to have a companion on the Ranger to drive around the land, checking out trees, looking for birds, or walking around.

At the Farm, November 2006