I appreciate your patience as I revise this site. Comments, thoughts, or just a friendly chat, use the response box below or email me at patrickgroleau@gmail.com.

April 8, 2018

MAINE - PROOF OF SPRING

... john invited me to join him taking pictures of his son and friends in the river run that was taking place over near belfast ... when we arrived the sun was warm but there was a brisk wind coming off the snowfields—mud season in maine has arrived ...
  

... for about an hour we watched the preparations, then found a good spot for viewing the start of the race ...
  

... this man had built a reed canoe (he didn't make it to the end) ...
  

... rather than a paddle, john's friend prefers a pole ...
  

... me, i'm pretty sure i wouldn't have made it over the starting line, but she makes it look both natural and easy ...
  

Those who would find solitude must not be afraid to stand alone.
W. DERESIEWICZ


... john's son, ben, and his friend churned the water at the start ...
  

... this couple seemed to be having a grand time of it ...
  

... ben and friend came flyin' around the bend in the river ...
  

... and, partly my own ineptness and partly the fact that a modern mirrorless camera with "classic" manual focus/aperture lenses isn't well suited for this sort of photography, i missed a good shot of the pair as they set up for the rapids ...oddly enough, if i had been using this same lens attached to an "old-fashioned" nikon f3 film camera with a high-eyepoint prism and k focusing screen this situtation would've been a breeze ...
  

... this guy bounced off the rocks quite nicely ...
  

... i could hear them calling instructions to one another, which, i believe, is most important ...
  

... wonderful family fun ...
  

... i was amazed at the amount of muscling that was taking place as the tiny vessels were guided through the white water ...
  

... on the way back to the car i paused for a memory ...
  

There is no rushing a river. When you go there, you go at the pace of the water and that pace ties you into a flow that is older than life on this planet. Acceptance of that pace, even for a day, changes us, reminds us of other rhythms beyond the sound of our own heartbeats.
JEFF RENNICKE