Xylem in us all.

Example of a cross section of a (woody) stem. Used with permission from Hydroponics - Indoor Horticulture by Jeffrey Winterborne. http://www.hydroponicist.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants (phloem is the other). Its basic function is to transport water, but it also transports some nutrients through the plant.

If the xylem is the conduit for passing water and nutrients within plants,  this and any blog are also xlyem. We are the roots drawing nutrients from the soil and our thoughts to transport them to you, the flower.

I had the good fortune to take a class with a video professor in the early nineties that influenced me deeply.

Paul Ryan taught an upper level Field Production class that went beyond the traditional scope of using video cameras and microphones properly. He introduced us to the use of Ta'i Chi to control our bodies while shooting 'hand-held' cameras. Professional cameras you see news photographers lugging on their shoulders are pretty heavy. This approach, lowering your center of gravity and shifting your weight consciously from leg to leg, allows one to walk with a smooth glide producing less camera shake. You get a freedom of movement that a tripod cannot emulate. Your shots gain a fluidity that you can only draw on a storyboard as a curve. 

The other major focus of Ryan's class was to bring in the concept of Earthscore to video production. He has several video examples at his site, earthscore.org.

While at the Sequatchie Vally Institute a few weeks ago, I thought of Paul while shooting this video. The camera was much smaller than the one we used back then. This video doesn't have a lot of camera movement in it, but is full of movement. What I'm doing here is describing the water.

This is a bit of a stretch, but conceptually, the stream bed, this medium and this conversation with each other is a fluid transfer of nutrients, ideas, stories, experiences.