Red Roses for my Valentine

Couldn't put this in yesterdays post (bit of a clash) and it is Valentines Day after all.

Choose a rose and send it to the one you love...

Night Vision

Perhaps for me one of the great things about traveling is the chance to see something new, or rather to see something, perhaps familiar, in a different way.

It's not always the right time of day for that particular image you are after. Still there are only opportunities out there. You don't just need your eyes open, you need to have your mind open to all the new opportunities that arise from moment to moment and the possibilities to be creative within these opportunities.

Always a big fan of line, shape, form and colour the after dark images make it easy to ignore details and really concentrate on composition and the beautiful ways that colours can be heightened to create a kind of magical landscape of shapes and form. Your eyes can play with the colours, the shapes, and not be distracted by the need to engage with the details.

Some more images taken during my travels on the south coast of NSW with my lovely daughter Olive (who resides in the second image with me).

These images taken in Coledale and Kiama.

Another Day

I'm sure my children are rolling their eyes again behind my back as I turn towards yet another unmistakably bland, cracked and uninteresting wall. I can't help it and neither I guess can they.

 

Just a Sunday night at the computer. An image I played with a few weeks ago and liked. I came back to it again tonight to have another go. I love the composition and texture of this image.

It's just so incredibly simple, and at the same time so complex...

To be or not to be...

Patterns and shapes fill my world. Watching Mr Elvis Costello interview My James Taylor last night. Some great songs and words. James Taylor said that his songwriting over the years has produced many individual songs but that the themes in his work were few. He continued to return to those ideas that were important to him and write something new from his current position. Perhaps he sang it a little more elegantly. (and what a beautiful voice)

I realise when I review my image making over the years that I also have been returning to the same themes and subjects over and over. The surface, shape, texture, angle, and line within my composition that underpin my thoughts are regular reminders of past images. The materials and subjects within my photographs return with regularity. When I'm out taking photographs I don't take a lot of time framing each image, but I do take a lot of care. I know when the composition is right and when it is not, and there is always the choice of whether to open the shutter or move on.

That particular subjects can represent feelings, thoughts and ideas is very intriguing. Why this angle or that piece of rusty corrugated iron. I sometimes shoot blind random images of textured or patterned surfaces. The choice there comes in the editing. The images I keep and those I delete fit into the familiar. I freely acknowledge the influence of other photographers and other images I have seen. The images I like are those that touch me deep below the surface of the subject. The intrinsic nature of certain images has the power to reach out and connect in a powerful way.

Many years ago a friend of mine and I sat in a bar in Gijon, Spain. My friend sat, feet resting on a second chair. A table between us. We sat and talked and every so often he would look across to a painted cast iron column reaching up to the ceiling. I've always liked that column he said with his eyes fixed. Why, I inquired. I don't know he said, I just do.

Away with words

Blake in the Kitchen

Just between you and I, working in the school canteen isn't the glamorous job it's made out to be. Last week during my shift, in a lull between the grasping sticky fingers and turning the hot chicken nuggets, I found some time to look around and observe. As the camera or iPod is never far from reach, I reached for it, I looked down, I tried to bring order to the universe with the camera as my compass, my gyroscope. The world quietened and all became serene.

With iPod in hand I traveled through the room. Venturing past the obvious and looking for some insight, something new, a place where I hadn't been before. I found these six images which seemed to belong together. They gave me space and understanding, and a feeling of being connected to what I was observing.

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour

from Auguries of Innocence, William Blake.

Solid Rock

As I was saying, water has a hold on the images I make... and on me, always has. I incline my head and recall many early morning trips to ocean baths and other coastal locations to try and capture the essence of what I see and feel. What is it that invades my consciousness and draws me deeper within itself and myself.

The slightly rank smell of dried out seaweed scattered along the beach or across the rocky platform. The misty salty spray dampening my face while I hold the camera under my shirtfront or behind my back to protect it from corrosive decay. The tremendous constant crash of waves breaking, relentless and overpowering and also calming and inducing a meditative focus.

I walk, run, crouch and stare. I stand and watch as time stands still but never stops. Moment by moment all is reborn before my eyes as through the lens. I want to capture every single moment, each tiny crack between every second that passes. I become the moment and the moment becomes me. I am lost and found in one place and in all places.

 

And even as the subject changes, still it stays the same...