We do quite a bit of wandering around here.  One game Sarah, Chris, and I like to play is something we’ve coined “The Direction Game”.  The rules are pretty simple.  We load up in my Suburban with a bunch of gear in the back and head out to the first gravel road we can find.  When we reach an intersection one person decides our direction – left, right, straight.  When we reach the next intersection a second person decides, left, right, straight.  And we continue that way throughout the day.  At some point we come across something worth exploring so we stop, pull out our cameras, and see what happens.  Once we’re satisfied with the exploration, we load back in the car and start all over again.

A couple of weeks ago we all met here in the Delta for several days to plan the 2012 Retreat, share some new techniques we’d each been exploring on our own, and, of course, wander a bit.  This time of year you’ll see lots of smoke rising in the air – farmers are usually burning corn fields after harvest in order to reset the field for the next planting.  One afternoon as we were winding our way back home for dinner we saw smoke rising much higher and whiter than normal (the plumes are often quite dark and gray) so we followed the trail.

About ten miles or so separated where we first saw the fire from where we actually found it, and when we did — wow, it wasnt corn at all.  It was an old golf course that had been shut down for years.  The old fairways had become overgrown in weeds and brush, so a controlled fire was set in order to get things back in order.  I’ve wandereed through lots of burning fields over the years, and this was easily the most dramatic I’ve encountered.

We sat with that fire for about an hour, I guess.  The video above is just a sampling of what we created with our iPhones.  We shot a bit of film as well.  Can’t wait to see what we have in those cameras.

The music in that video is by our friends Ricky and Micol, better known as Blue Mother Tupelo.  They drove down from Nashville one night during Rebirth to play a bit and tell us the stories behind many of their songs.  It was a wonderful evening and very insightful hearing about the creative process of other artists.  Check ‘em out if you get a chance. 

~wj