Frame…Wangling Big Against Small

   The photographic frame allows the game of sight to begin. Often it is a wrestling match between David and Goliath. Goliath is said to have been as tall as four cubits and a span, roughly about 6’7”. A cubit is the distance from your elbow to the tip of your middle finger, and a span is the space between the thumb and pinky spread out. It is said that a span should be about a half inch less than the width of a page.

Along Route 200, East of Winnett, Montana, 2010

 

  The camera frame is like David facing Goliath in the valley of Elah. The frame has the ability to wangle big facts against small ones and automatically makes comparisons between them. An empty landscape is not so alone when a small intruder of a recognizable shape sits on the horizon acting like David. The eye for a moment behaves like a yard stick, counting the cubits and spans between the small and the Goliath in a world made for the camera frame.

   I can testify that rain drops are bigger in Montana than anywhere else on the planet. I am also convinced that Montana’s skies are bigger than we have been told. They are especially large if you happen to catch them before or after a hail storm hammers a couple cracks into your windshield. I was also told by a rancher that God made the eastern plains of Montana flat so that rolled hay or baleage would not tumble into the Missouri river.

Days Photographing In Montana

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