I will return to writing soon but for now my musings will manifest themselves as photographs. Thanks to my lovely wife I now have a camera that allows me to have as much or as little control over the images as I desire. With these photos I am exploring the everydayness of my community here deep in southeast Georgia. Hidden amongst the old and the new, between the rusted and the recently painted are images of great beauty. The more I look the more I see. The top photo is of an Episcopal church on the next block. In daylight it looks much less foreboding. The second photo was taken at an old Baptist church out where the roads are not paved and the silence palpable. The third photo is of the entrance to an old liquor store filled with spirits of days long past. The fourth is the door frame to an old movie theatre that stands now as a frail shell emptied of its stars flickering on the silver screen but still full of memories hiding in the chinks. The last photo was taken just across the street from my home. It is a nondescript two-story tin-sided warehouse. The beauty is here, I just just have to coax it into focus.
For me the photos and the writing are all fingers on the same hand trying to scratch the creative itch.
5 comments:
I have been enjoying your photographs; You've got a great eye, especially for framing and color.
I am also a bit envious. The last time I was able to get out and take some shots was last August and I still haven't got the film developed yet.
If you don't mind me asking, what kind of camera are you using? I am assuming it is digital; the quality of images are great.
I was wondering if you were using a digital SLR (the kind you can change lenses on) or a regular digital, with maybe a zoom feature.
And do you do major touch with photoshop, or are these pretty close to raw.
If I am being too nosy, don't feel that you have to answer.
Digital cameras are finally getting to the point of convincing me to loosen my death grip on my old Nikon F100; but it will be a long time until I can afford a digital SLR; But if you are getting results like these with a regular digital,maybe I will experiment with my daughter's camera.
She has also taken some pretty impressive shots...digital seemed to have finally broken the barrier that film always bested them--color, skin tones, especially in low light.
Creativity unleashes itself where it will. It's so much more fun to follow that itch across disciplines than to confine oneself to a category of artistic expression. That said, I am enjoying your photography quite a bit. Quotidian beauty unveiled.
peace,
Frank+
And the photos are wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
Isabella,
You are not at all being nosy. Please feel free to ask any time and thank you for sticking with me when I don’t post regularly.
The camera is an Olympus E-510 digital SLR. You can find out more information about it here. From what I can discern it is a step or two below their professional grade camera but better than a point and shoot. It has10 megapixel capability and came with 40-150mm and 18-42mm lenses. For the camera, the two lenses, the strap and a bag it was about $750.
I was first introduced to photography about 12 years ago when I was hired to be a reporter for the local newspaper. I think the camera was a Nikon but of course it was not digital so I spent a lot of time at Winn-Dixie one hour photo processing. I was introduced to the wonder of digital photography with a Kodak point and shoot I was issued for use at work. It generally served the purpose and I took some decent photos with it but I always felt limited by the weak flash, the inability to manipulate the depth of field and shutter speed and not being able to turn off all the stuff it performs automatically. I also found it very rewarding to work around those limitations and still get good shots. But for taking basically flat photos during the day it held its own.
I am just now beginning my foray into Photoshop and it seems to be a fairly steep learning curve. Most of the photos I posted here are basically raw. They may have been cropped or had the contrast and/or color balance tweaked a little. I took a photography class many moons ago but mostly I operate by trial and error.
The Olympus has all the options as the point and shoot and many others that I am just now learning to use. It feels good in the hand and the different functions easy to access and manipulate. I know we are not supposed to love the things of this world so I’ll just say I really, really like the potential it brings. I find something very gratifying in crafting good photographs. Half the trick is seeing what’s already in front of me. Photography, painting, blogging, writing and some of the other crazy stuff I find myself doing are often times closer to compulsion than to hobby. They allow me the freedom and the venue to unclutter my mind, to be a maker and not just an observer. I often wonder if my ego pushes me too hard when I post things here for all the world to see. It feels like an act of bravery and of bravado.
Isabella,
I apologize for the non-existent link to the Olympus website in my previous comment. I forgot that I can't put hyperlinks in comment boxes. If you go to the Olympus website you find information about the E-510 fairly easily.
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