Ice and leaves along the edge of a small stream
Call me crazy but I continue to look for a better way to describe what I am doing when I click the shutter on my camera.
“Taking” a photo just doesn’t work for me. I don’t like “shooting” one either. Like I said, maybe I’m crazy. When I’m standing on a rock in the middle of a stream, like I was today, looking at ice so delicate one false step will destroy the subject of the photograph I’m trying to “take,” the word seems inadequate and in accurate.
I think “making” a photograph is really the best way to describe what I am doing. When I make a photograph, even if only a digital image stored on electronic media, I leave the original where it is and, with some skill and a lot of luck, I end up with a representation of that reality, a “light drawing” or photograph.
Making a photograph also implies the active process it is, the equipment, the experience using it, the finding the light, framing what I’m seeing. It doesn’t just happen. The photograph would not exist without both the photographer and the subject.
I have a delightful time today—by myself!—exploring some new territory the Green Mountain Audubon Center near Huntington. Wonderful streams, large Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum), snow covered with the small seeds of Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis), beaver dams and glistening ice, among others. It will be great to explore it further and share what I see with you. Making photographs is fun and sharing them with others is even better..
Still Learning To See 
John, I love the classic thirds with such rich textures in this one. And I certainly have been enjoying the thought process you are sharing. Sometime remind me to tell you how I was “haunted” by Acer saccharum.