It’s true that photos and animals don’t lie. (Photos do I supposed, with Photoshop sometimes) but animals don’t use technology to enhance images. It isn’t that hard to be an okay digital photographer. It is hard to be a good one, as with anything else.
But I think these Maria/donkey photos are not just cute. They are significant. They are telling us something. We have pretty much decided to keep the donkeys, if it’s okay with Darryl Kuehne, the farmer and friend who took them last year, along with the sheep. We have also pretty much decided not to keep any sheep.We have to be disciplined about leaving space for our real work – writing and art – and not getting bogged down in endless chores, costs, loss of focus, as we did last year. Our friend Ken Norman can come and trim the donkey’s hooves (you out there, Ken?) and we don’t need that much hay for them. Maybe 100 bales for the winter. She sheep are messy, and hungry and need shearing, etc.
There are some I’d love to keep – Bartleby and his mom, number 57. But I’m not sure. If you saw Maria with the donkeys and saw the joy on her face and theirs, there seems little question about what do. I think Maria will grow old with these donkeys, and how nice a thought that.
Once we made that decision, the relationship changed. The donkeys opened up and so did Maria. Me too, although not to the same extent. The photography is a gift, as that is where I saw this happening. Choose life.