Photography is not about cameras, gadgets and gizmos. Photography is about photographers. A camera didn’t make a great picture any more than a typewriter wrote a great novel.
Peter Adams
Shadows at the Mailbox
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Amber’s Art
Amber’s Postcard Art Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
Henry Ward Beecher -
My Life and more….
My life: a hat, journal, fountain pen, books, laptop, desk and camera My role as an observer of an image is much different as I practice and mature with photography. I am grateful I’ve come to see the world with new eyes when I look through the viewfinder of my camera. I contribute this with time, practice and learning to be present to life. Likewise, my role as an observer of another person’s image has changed. There has always been the draw of colors, patterns and especially the light and shadows. But, the story an image expresses is becoming a greater interest within me.
I’m posting this image because it says something about me at this time in my life. It tells a story: it tells you I wear a favorite hat on an almost daily basis, it tells you I have established a routine of writing almost daily basis for many years using a small collection of fountain pens, it tells you I allow the words from sacred texts of many faiths, poets, mystics, and creatives transforms me as a person. And, since I’ve taken the image myself it tells how a camera is always with me and used as a creative tool and inspiration in my life. It says something about my life and more.
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Fountain at Sunset
Fountain at Sunset I do not have a grill back in Colorado at my condo because of a city fire code. Anyway, now that I’m house sitting I have been able to use my brother-in-law’s grill, twice. Last night it was spicy sausages. 🙂
While things were cooking I was drawn to the neighbors back yard and the little fountain they had. The scene was beckoning me to grab my camera, step over near their wall, kneel down, compose and press the shutter. To me it represents the life people live down here.
Let me tell you, I am not used to this heat at night. Back in Colorado we cool down at night, but not here. It can still be 85-90 when I go to bed. It would take some adjustment for me to live here.
Oh, and in case you care to know, the sausages were Awesome!
- Art/Design, Black and White, Cityscapes/Urban, musings, Plants, quotes, shadows, trees, writing/reading
One Must Not Take Photos
Shadows #1 “A photograph is neither taken or seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
When someone sees me with a camera I am quite often asked if I have “taken” any good “pitchers” today. I find that difficult to answer. First, I carry a camera as if it is a part of me, a creative tool. I only compose and press the shutter button when an image appears. My belief in that grows more and more each day. One of my tasks in life is to have a camera with me and to be present and observe. I must see with my eyes and the eyes of my heart and soul. And, there are days when I never press my shutter button, most likly because I was not present.
Shadows #2 Secondly, what I consider a good image may not be good to someone else. If Cartier-Bresson is correct then a photograph given to me has a purpose of nurturing my soul and change something within me. And for me the beauty of this is the desire to share some of these images with you, whether they are liked or not.
Thanks for listening. Monte
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Shadows
Shadows “A shadow cannot ignore the sun that all day creates and moves it!”
Rumi -
Art it Everywhere
Mural in Loveland depicting Lake Loveland and the Devils Backbone Ridge Seeing, in the finest and broadest sense, means using your senses, your intellect, and your emotions. It means encountering your subject matter with your whole being. It means looking beyond the labels of things and discovering the remarkable world around you. – Freeman Patterson
