Dandelions Close-up

Dandelions Close-up
Dandelions In Black And White

Sunday, March 29, 2015

March 29, 2015


It seems in this ever competitive photo market place success wins happiness and failure an overwhelming feeling of defeat.  This belief that failure is an ending is based on the illusions of success.  Success is exploitative, it creates illusions of accomplishments but these achievements are only for an external gratification.  We all can look successful but an appearance like authenticity is an illusion.  With each success our ego grows more narrowly focused and our willingness to explore other avenues of interest brings a risk of failure, so we stick to our prideful script and take photos of similar subjects to keep the success train rolling.

Failure is not something to be afraid of but to be embraced.  If you fail you have a template to look at and find out what happened.  I have always taken images that weren't quite finished and ready for publication.  Something was missing in the composition and the quality of light that made the subject lack significance. It was my inexperience and youthful know it all attitude that made me ignore the potential of the subject in front of me and made me leap toward the lure of next greatest image just over the horizon.

When I edit some of my older slides for scanning, I find some of these image failures were actually trail markers I wasn't paying attention to and I ended up on dead end paths that did not inspire me at all.  There was something I wasn't connecting with in these earlier scenes but still deep down I must of had an intuition, a gut feeling that this subject needed to be expressed.

You can chase success but success is actually chasing you, making you see only what it wants you to see and you are missing the subjects that are under your radar just waiting to be discovered. And these ignored subjects are actually the ones that could inspire your life and others, if only you could wake up and see them.









Saturday, March 21, 2015

March 20, 2015


I need to go beyond my redundant habits in shooting the same old subjects over and over again.  I need to expand my horizons by taking on subjects that are new, challenging and inspirational.

For one thing by doing the same camera set up over and over again my interest in the subject is lessened. I become disinterested in the subject and my images will reflect my bored mood.

Good photography is finding the note in your subject and playing your music along side it, using the elements of composition to discover new chords in the image being created that can move and inspire.

You need to build a composition that expresses not only your subject but your inner design which is constructed through your interaction with your subject. Start exploring deeper to find that composition that expresses your subject truthfully and expresses through your photographic character your connection with your subject.

Finding this new muse and expressing more by finding other chords and building your composition you create a new music, a new image, an instrumental, that gives you motivation but also confidence in your growing awareness of what you like to express in your photographs and gives the listener/viewer to those practiced chords an appreciation of your effort to explore new territories.





Sunday, March 1, 2015

February 16, 2015


Imagination, Fantasy, Dream practice, Meditation... all of these bring forth the fundamental gift all humans have and that is the desire in living life to transcend this sticky reality we all share.  Sometimes we get caught up with distractions that move us away from a purposeful life and into a herd mentality of imitation. The art culture wakes us up to this wonderful world of personal expression.  

We are becoming distracted by the shallow social media entertainment industry that doesn't have at its core inspiration but moves us like children to a candy store of fragmented scrap book imagery.

These images were never meant to be posted relentlessly on the web. Their authenticity is with family members that enjoy getting together during the holiday season and invariably these photo albums would come out to be reminisced about with family friends and relatives.

We are less inclined to appreciate the great images if we are dumbed down into thinking an instant thoughtless snap shot can equal the intensity of a studied subject through a connected photographer with his subject.

The art of photography is a gift to the world, a manifestation of the artists intent, to stimulate the viewer into thinking about this world in a deeper way. The great images of the past and the great images being created today are being overwhelmed by the banal content being supplied to the web. Everyone is an artist. And the more we see of this mediocre everyday snap shots we miss the important subjects being created that can give us a deeper understanding of our lives and our future.  But just maybe that is the whole purpose of the social media websites to distract us into becoming more look alike nondescript personalities, all thinking in shallow pools of a common mediocrity.  The more mindless information we are exposed to the less we know.  Images that have a purpose need to be looked at more than a few seconds. They need to be studied and thought about. We are not image jumpers, we are focused eyes on works of art.

Separation now is part of the image creation. We don’t experience reality we take pictures of it and then post our results as we would put money into a parking meter. With only a few seconds of viewing time allowed.

Ernst Haas wrote, "You will have to decide for yourself what kind of works you want to create. Reports of facts, essays, poems-you want to speak or to sing? There are almost too many possibilities.  Photography is in direct proportion with our time: multiple, faster, instant.  Because it is so easy it will be difficult.  Since we can photograph almost anything we are again at a new beginning.  There is a photographic explosion in the world.  Its the glamour profession.  Everybody takes pictures, everybody can copy trends or styles... Only a vision-that is what one must have."  This quote by Ernst Hass was from the book 'World Photography' edited by Bryn Campbell, published in 1981.  


In creating meaningful imagery all you need is complexity of thoughts reduced to light play on your camera sensor.