Sometimes an image making theme just shows up all on it's own. There's nothing I can do when this happens, or so it seems.
This week saw my wife and I on an early metro headed north so she could make an appointment she'd made well before the summer heat had hit us hard. It was now Fall cool. I tagged along as we enjoy each others company. Packing my super cheap super small super light camera and lens I wandered off to find something interesting to do. Inevitably this lead me to a cemetery.
I can spend hours wandering around a good cemetery. Europe seems to be filled with them so I'm well entertained. They tend to be quiet and unvisited by tourists and the place I found myself in was just steps away from one of the most tourist crowded places on Planet Earth. Yet, there I was, all alone with a few feral cats, a couple of squawking crows, and a commanding view of the backsides of rather old artists lofts. In short, I had the place to myself.
After the usual 20 minutes that it takes to enter into an artist's "mind-space", I discovered one interesting thing after another. There was something about the light and shapes that captured my mind's eye. I knew there was a thing or two to be revealed in processing the works later, but I wasn't sure exactly what.
We met friends visiting from our old home town after my wife's appointment. The man is a photographer too. He was the one who introduced me to a man who taught me to make hand coated platinum/palladium prints. He also introduced me to a group of photographers who enjoyed, once a month, sitting around talking "shop" and drinking beers. I learned a lot from everyone and wish I could meet a group nice people like that here. It was good to see Patrick and his wife, Mary Jo, again after our several years of living overseas.
The next day I started working on the cemetery images. I played with the processing just a bit, et voila, suddenly I saw what I'd felt when working the cemetery. Texture! Oh, and what pretty texture it is, too. I had a whole collection of beautiful texture images.
I have to smile at this. Most of the time I have a very clear idea of what I want and how I will proceed before I start a photo-session. Not this time. Serendipity had her way with me. All I had to do was follow her lead.
The album of images from my hour and fifteen minutes I spent in this magical place can be found on my Flickr site.
This week saw my wife and I on an early metro headed north so she could make an appointment she'd made well before the summer heat had hit us hard. It was now Fall cool. I tagged along as we enjoy each others company. Packing my super cheap super small super light camera and lens I wandered off to find something interesting to do. Inevitably this lead me to a cemetery.
I can spend hours wandering around a good cemetery. Europe seems to be filled with them so I'm well entertained. They tend to be quiet and unvisited by tourists and the place I found myself in was just steps away from one of the most tourist crowded places on Planet Earth. Yet, there I was, all alone with a few feral cats, a couple of squawking crows, and a commanding view of the backsides of rather old artists lofts. In short, I had the place to myself.
After the usual 20 minutes that it takes to enter into an artist's "mind-space", I discovered one interesting thing after another. There was something about the light and shapes that captured my mind's eye. I knew there was a thing or two to be revealed in processing the works later, but I wasn't sure exactly what.
We met friends visiting from our old home town after my wife's appointment. The man is a photographer too. He was the one who introduced me to a man who taught me to make hand coated platinum/palladium prints. He also introduced me to a group of photographers who enjoyed, once a month, sitting around talking "shop" and drinking beers. I learned a lot from everyone and wish I could meet a group nice people like that here. It was good to see Patrick and his wife, Mary Jo, again after our several years of living overseas.
The next day I started working on the cemetery images. I played with the processing just a bit, et voila, suddenly I saw what I'd felt when working the cemetery. Texture! Oh, and what pretty texture it is, too. I had a whole collection of beautiful texture images.
I have to smile at this. Most of the time I have a very clear idea of what I want and how I will proceed before I start a photo-session. Not this time. Serendipity had her way with me. All I had to do was follow her lead.
The album of images from my hour and fifteen minutes I spent in this magical place can be found on my Flickr site.
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ReplyDeleteI am often fascinated by textures and the ones you show here are beautiful. I rarely have an idea how I'm going to photograph a place. I usually just take what comes, get the best shots I can, and revel in the joy and surprise of anything I get that lets me create an artistic image. :)
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