Lunchtime Meanderings.......

I am in a VERY busy period of my life and as such I have not a lot of time to take photos. This cramps my style to a certain extent yet it also focuses me on the moment. All in all I prefer the more leisurely pace of having a long period within which to shoot and look at the scene before I even put camera to eye. That said, better to have shot and flexed your creative muscles a little than to have not used them at all!

I have a.... desire? Philosophic imperative? Contrary streak? Whatever.... that keeps me coming back to wanting to carry only two primes at most, and often just one single lens. That lens often now is my 100mm f2.8 macro lens, first because it is water resistant just like my camera body and just really well built and a pleasure to handle. Second because it is sharp and lets me get just as close as I want to so I can isolate details from the vast mass of visual detritus and debris that confronts us at every turn. To me that is the essence of photography: finding the bits of beauty in, or the details of, a single scene that make it memorable. That is how I remember: one detail that makes the scene or place unique.

This day I simply chose to open myself to the scene and ask: Why did I come here to eat my lunch, what makes it pleasing?

First thing I realized was that there were flowers. Not that this is a particularly unique thing to just this spot, far from it, the silly things are everywhere. But they are why I was sitting on that chair at that moment.

Now, flowers are pretty much a cliche or joke among the more "pro" elements of the photography community unless they photograph them professionally. Many amateurs shoot way too many mediocre flower shots, I think the last two fall towards this category, but at the same time they have value as practice.... or what not to do. (I am trying to be a more self aware and self critical photographer, which is hard, as I love my photos.....)

I next found myself becoming aware of this vista that often captivates me, the play of clouds and light has mesmerized me on many occasions and left me awed by the majesty of my surroundings.

This last set is the product of multiple trips to this building to simply look and enjoy the uniqueness of this buildings design. I have been frustrated at my inability to truly capture the sight. I think I now have found my focal length and spot, and I simply now need to await the proper light and sky to make the image I want to capture.

I chose to shoot this image to demonstrate the tension between the open and free sky and the sharply jutting corner of the building, this building houses a cancer specialty hospital. Just the thought gives me tension and this reminds me of that.

This image becomes more about the shapes and textures of the building as simply an object in and of itself. I planned to shoot it and convert it to B&W from the start and produced the image I envisioned when I captured it. That is the light at the end of the tunnel that I have been waiting for photographically. To simply see something, knowing what the camera and lens I have will do and getting the shot as I saw it. Deep satisfaction in those rare moments.

This shot exists simply because the folks on one of my photography forums indicated that they would like to see the second shot in color since the liked it more than the first. So I whipped one up. Not sure I like it as much, though the color does have much to recommend it. It just becomes more about the color than the shape... which loses something that I deeply liked about the monochrome version. What do you think?