Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The Art of Seeing
Soon I'll be participating in another blog, a group effort showcasing my home town of Quincy. My part of this enterprise will be called Seldom Seen Delights. Yesterday, as I was waiting for an appointment with a colleague at the Mt. Hough Ranger Station, I decided to wander around with the camera for a few minutes. At first glance, the area around the parking lot looks overly groomed, or one might say "tamed." Very little underbrush, lower branches trimmed - boring! However, the job of a photographer/naturalist is to look beyond the obvious. This practice is always rewarded. When one chooses to place a rectangle (the frame of the viewfinder) around a portion of nature, many considerations come into play. The most important consideration is light. Am I trying to show the scene "as it is" or am I trying to use some poetic license to convey a message? Am I highly conscious of what I'm leaving out? Examples: litter, vandalism, unpopular items. I think a unifying theme in my photography and drawing is "seldom seen." I think "discovery" is one of the greatest possible human experiences, so I try to share my discoveries. These are rarely, if ever, things discovered for the first time, but my particular view is a discovery for me and usually for most people who accompany me. Like Thoreau, I marvel at the wonders in my own back yard. No need to travel to a rain forest or the Arctic to feel I'm seeing something exotic. I'm glad I arrived a bit early and decided to wander around a bit. Click on any photo for a closer view.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment