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Agate is happy to kick off this occasional series with the wonderful Busy As, a video by David Morris. We’re inviting you, our readers and subscribers, to send in your own favorite “slice of life” videos taken in nature to be showcased on Agate. Capture scenes and sounds from nature where you live or when you’re out adventuring in wild places in Minnesota and the surrounding Great Lakes region. Rules are few: please keep length around 1:30 minutes or less, and size less than 20 MB. Aim for sharp images and clear sound, and take care not to disturb wildlife. Iphone videos are fine. Email to Agate at info.agatemagazine@gmail.com, with “Short-short Video” in the subject line. Tell us a little bit about yourself (include a photo!) and provide a short description of the video. We’re excited to see your submissions and to get to know the Agate community.
About the videographer
David Morris’s favorite book as a child was a natural history book. Despite living in a half dozen different houses growing up (by Darby Creek in Drexel Hill PA, on the beach in San Juan Puerto Rico, adjacent to undeveloped land in Park Forest IL, on the edge of Bangkok where the rice paddies begin, and ten miles from town on Lake Lemon after he got out of the dorm at Indiana University), there was always a wild open area just beyond, which were his main playgrounds. In adulthood he has continued to favor natural history books and has always lived in the country, while working as a Child Psychologist in Stillwater and the Twin Cities (now mostly retired). He lives on ten acres in May Township in northern Washington County, Minnesota, surrounded by Warner Nature Center. With three acres fenced off from deer, he and his wife Laurel have extensive gardens, including vegetables, berries, flowers, and tons of hosta. They spend most of their time outside, where the natural world is of course everywhere, if you look and listen. There is very little that escapes notice, with a plethora of events, big and little, worth taking in. Having a camera in one’s pocket (which for David, predates his cell phone), makes it so easy to record special scenes like this industrious bumblebee gathering pollen, and vibrating her wings to shake more off. In July, the rose bushes are alive with the activity of bees, their excited hum always a welcome sound.
