We were all using our hands on this job. One pushing the lawnmower carefully taking care of the grass, one holding the paper trying to read between the lines. As for me , holding the camera taking care of the scene. Who knows maybe someone else was watching both hands on the steering wheel.
Trying to pinpoint how photography works for me I found myself making a detour by another part of me: Music. Then came the word harmony and there I was digressing cause I had found a starting point and it really echoed in my mind. Harmony is the key. Harmony is how we work, photography and (I)eye.
It's definitely not the same kind of photography as shown above but getting the kind of picture I want of my kids seems to be more difficult than a chosen and composed situation played out on the streets. Rare are the times when I had a camera when they had one of their greatest expressions, in my view( Cute pictures of cute kids don't cut it nicely as good pictures of kids for me). And when I had one, my eye would record it faster and/or the camera could just not do it from the position I was in or I'd be too slow. Realizing that, it is not hard to believe the best camera ever is your eye, too bad memory is not as sensitive and biologically developed to last..jpg)
Apart being in a room filled with parents and kids or a playground with the same actors, I rarely am close to the scenes I photographed nowadays. I got used not to intrude anymore being in a car most of the time and I use a telephoto or a tele-zoom more and more.Anyway, I did promise myself to make it a date to boldly get in the face or sneak on whoever suits my mood to photograph to get what I want and then go with the flow every once in a while not to lose that touch.
A look back at some street shots taken on a self-assignment during a rainy day, a really long while back. Anyway, I noticed that people are more focused on themselves when dealing with adverse weather conditions, which makes your presence and intrusion less noticeable. Some are rushing, some enjoy the show. As a street hunter you might be doing both. I miss the city and snapshooting around.
I spent some time on the road and in the Great Falls national parks today where I gathered additional shots to add to a series which first take was not rigorous enough.I was lucky enough to find a spot that gave me the same kind of matter even though the forms were richer the first time I saw the performance of Nature. In the process I even found some more exciting views aided by a high dose of sun.They now need to be processed.
Here it is. I had said in a week or so but a good friend told me that high posting frequency is important when blogging, so...I heard.Better find in a quest.Closer to a final if not to a finer realization of a visual.A construction site nearby. A drive by find explored when weather conditions were riped.A first full out search for visual pertinence to achieve a capture. The neighboring captures are different and give a different perspective.You'll witness it.Pipe shaped blocks of concrete lying on a grass waiting to be hauled and positioned for a, mysterious to me, use but a construction.I set out to have my share of it before you need a pass to access a soon to be vanished material buried in a more fashion way.
Can't really relinquish.Never been the case. The pleasure is too big sometimes and the attraction just as present as gravity itself. Never to be ignored.Being so sensitive even to my thoughts I tend to react and express myself boldly, only to come back and readjust.Can't let go of the pleasure of making this kind of photos, if not any kind.Eyes have too much to offer and photography is one hell of a recorder.One that I know of. Its simplicity is lovable. And more so I am indebted to Her. I O U so I'll stick with U for it is my pleasure to serve U as You serve me. Can't turn my back on U.
I'm juggling with thoughts and repeating myself at times just like life repeats itself everyday with a different face. I need to find a consistent approach in general, but especially in doing photos, not to mismanage time and effort. Reason why I was happy about reading about Weston and Leiter's way of sort of "planning their photography" (See post Rush no spirit no rush spirit). I rarely do that, maybe because of the small territory of my photography caused by limited time to go around places, so grabbing anything that comes my way compensates lack of time and feed the urgency of doing photography.Not surprisingly, it has resulted in a lot of waste of film and time as well. Going digital crucial and mandatory is to define one's work, so that every frame gets you closer to your goal. For me a gentle reminder. As for references to photographers, I know "my classics". I now feed more on articles and essays about them than their photos which are results of a philosophy and a way of doing.
Following my previous post is another catch taken with my point & shoot digital camera.Last night I was reading, at last, an essay on Edward Weston Photography by Terrence Pitts and took the time afterwards to look at the photographs he had made, and It got me battling, in a wordly manner, and taking on photography and the manufactured commerce that prevails nowadays on its shoulders. The photoblog community in which I am taking part will not be exempted from the analysis that will ensue. The blooming of contests, the blooming of production of equipment and the confusion about what photography is, could and should be has reached a climax that has frustration and despair looming upon me. As much as I welcome the beautiful spread of the exercise of expression, it seems strongly that the profusion of glossy mags and photographic entities are drowning and leading photography in a realm of over produced emptiness of senses despite the abundant and honest work of photographers and writing of educated critics. And when it could advocate(let's say for preservation of our waters with so many photos made on the subject), photographers fail to do so for the sheer 15 minutes of warholian fame and commerce only. Photography is living at the same pace of the dominant post-industrial activity. It looks like wall street to simplify. Senseless with few exceptions(the intimist portrait photographers,photoreporters and too little a number of Landscapists). 
First, the eye. The quality of the equipment absolutely needed ought to be defined only by the nature and the needed quality of the final output. Photography consumers should be reminded more of that, but in the technological gadgetry driven society and market we live in we do feel compelled to buy the newest item because it has that new technological feature that we won't use but somehow need to have. Camera manufacturers have given obsolescence a new pace, they in fact control it and are being helped by photo mags to have us think that what we bought 6 months ago is no good no more to do what we were doing when it was all film camera photography and digital cameras didn't exist. They won't give us a better eye. It's not against the technology but I hate to see us mostly driven and not knowing why we do get stuff we might not need in the end or that do not make things better.That shot above reminds me of my point & shoot I haven't used in months whereas it served me greatly.We all know it's about the eye.
I was caught by these two.Then it was only a sight, but reflecting a little on what could be said about it.We look in the same directions.We search for the same thing, aren't we in general? Not the same ways I reckon and not with the same mind frame.But we dress, we eat, we breathe,we work,we dream,we move and are being moved,we think(some with a different part of the brain!?).We got different taste because many flavors to choose from and live by and be satisfied with.But what does it come to and where does it all go during our lifetime? A quest for a good living.Now is it enough to think only for ourselves or elevating and sharing the views and goals with everyone is something worth working towards to?
People are absorbed while driving, somewhere else(when not glued to their phones). I had started focusing on them drivers when photography time would only occur while driving myself. Absorbed by others.
Her silhouette.We were all moving forward. My film was not sensitive enough but I was.
I'll keep posting even though I'm done clarifying my transition in photography. It will help me sorting out the production and tossing away the bad. Hopefully during that process I'll end up with an idea of packaging all of them in a nicer way. Keep watching. The next will be... next.
Sun is shining today and I had a wonderful meeting with Nature couple of hours ago. I took an hour and drove to my favorite spot, somewhere in Great Falls by the water, to grab a shot I had overlooked months ago but got notice of, perusing through archives. Nature doesn't waste time. I did and that shot was nowhere to be had no more. Postponed until...Ah! further notice... from Nature!!??
Being aware of our surrounding.
I think some of us work like painters. They in time come up with a signature-style. And also work series. It serves, I think, two purposes: it gives strength and depth to a work in progress, a Body; and it affirms a style, a signature.The latter is important(I'm not convinced but...) and sought after by many.Let's also note that sometimes it comes out as a complete fraud( no real object or perhaps that we can make beautiful out of everything.What's new. Try to have good taste). But as painters can apply their signature to different subjects. Can it be done in photography? Could it be recognizable if applied to different subjects?
Was I the only one to see that woman? Could that shot advocate for invisible undies 2? Man ,these aftershot details!
It was definitely about colors...and lines shaping rectangles. As for the composition, it was my choice(hose line) plus the sheer magic of a 135mm telephoto(a preferred framer) combined with the sheer luck of being a front liner at the traffic stoplight and it being red of course.
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