Wednesday, April 6, 2011

picture me a word

Some days there just aren't any words. Today there were only images in my head. I stopped to take the first photos before I reached home. I felt a driving urge to capture what I saw with my camera. It started with my iPhone.  The road home, the sun setting through the trees, the light casting long shadows on the road. Another day drawing to a close. So I attempted once again to capture the moments of my life, and my world, with the snap of my shutter.

I shot several photos, using several settings, hoping to find a way to perfectly express what my eyes were drinking in. 













Finally I returned to my car and drove home.  I thought I was going to go download the photos, but I had to let the dogs run, so I decided to switch cameras and grabbed Big Girl at that point and headed to my little corner of the world.  While the dogs ran circles around me, I was looking.  At everything from the sky above me to the dirt underneath my feet.  Then I began to snap the shutter.

*An aside here: I think because I was an artist first, I am hypersensitive to the things I see.  When I hang my camera around my neck, I look at the world through different eyes.  I've spent so many years composing and painting canvas, that it is just one step up to compose a photograph.  Thank goodness for digital cameras, because rather than try to set up and take one perfect photo, I try to convey something in its natural state, whether I am photographing people or nature.  So I snap lots of photos.  Each one a bit different.  Each one with another perspective.







So I looked and snapped, and snapped some more.  And what I realized while I took these photos, was the blessing of nature around me.  There are no mistakes in nature.  All around me was perfection.

The perfection of a tangle of grape vines against the blue sky.  The perfection of a rose in full bloom.  The perfection of collards in the garden, gone to seed and blooming profusely, with the hum of bees lifting from the bright yellow flowers.  And the perfection of an old well bucket and pulley hanging silently from a peeling frame, patiently waiting to be put to use once again.

Perfection.  Captured in a split second.  Shared with you today.  Drink it in.  Savor it.  Because the second it took me to capture this, is a second that will never exist again.

Except in my photographs.

12 comments:

  1. Love the photos Cath. My favourite is the black and white of the road. To me, I'm being lead from the dark to the light.
    I too am a prolific "snapper" I'm fascinated how several people look at the same thing and all see something different.

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  2. I think as artists...we tend to experience things visually, a trait which has given me a much bigger appreciation for the beauty to be seen in EVERYTHING. Beautiful images Cath!

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  3. I love the coloured well wheel. It's resilience after being beaten by weather year after year speaks to me of hope! Nice pics :o)

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  4. thanks! for the comments Mary, Jerene and Dawn. I always like hearing people's thoughts about the photographs I take.

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  5. Fan-freaking-tastic Cathy!! I love the photos of the road.

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  6. Gorgeous! I so hear you when you get that urge - the iPhone comes in so handy when the actual camera is not at hand. Driving inspires me sometimes - especially in the country.

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  7. I'm kind of partial to the grapevines. I really love that picture. They're all great though Cath. Love your eye!

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  8. Cathy,
    I love the blog. I am so happy you had stopped by mine and said hello.

    I love your photography style. It looks like we share a same type of compositional eye on the nature style photographs. I posted some new photos today. Always looking for critiques and comments.

    I really enjoyed your writing style..Can't wait to spend some more time poking around your blog.
    Aaron

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  9. Thanks Beckey! Glad you like them :D

    Thanks too Kathy! I think I can do better with those vines but I loved the convoluted twisting of them and wanted to have a go at capturing them...

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  10. Glad we discovered each other Aaron. As soon as I saw your photo and read that first blog entry I was hooked. I too think we share a similar outlook on photography and I will be checking your blog out frequently.

    Thanks so much for the encouragement and kind words...
    ~cath

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  11. Great photos. Give us more, please. Thanks.

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  12. @Thom Brown
    Thanks Thom. More photos will never be difficult to find here, given my compulsive propensity to snap everything I see through my viewfinder. :D
    ~cath

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