Two or three times per year, usually at the height of spring or fall, I take a walk around the historic North Main Street district in Wake Forest, Nikon DSLR in hand, looking to document the season.

This year I’m a little early, mostly because I wanted my Florida niece to enjoy a beautiful North Carolina Sunday afternoon. It turns out that the colors we were looking for are still a few weeks away, but we live in a beautiful, picturesque community regardless.

We walked through the intersection of Main and North then onto the seminary campus, and I was instantly reminded that appreciation is as much about how we see as what we are looking at.

I may take another walk when the seasonal colors come out in their glory, and the full-on impact of a North Carolina spring just about takes my breath away, but I am glad to have been challenged to pay attention in this way in this particular moment.

How we see:

I believe that good photography is about seeing with your heart as much as it is about looking through a lens. Framing is what counts, and my eyes are always looking for new ways to appreciate the fabulous gift that is – and has been now for almost eight years – Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Here are a few of the images from March 21, 2021, in the order they were taken. I have a few notes under most of the photographs, but mostly I will let them speak for themselves.

Eyes wide open – DEREK