A while back we talked about how the eye completely ignores things that the camera insists upon showing, even highlighting. As a result, it’s tricky to frame a photo so that it shows more or less what my eye first noticed and appreciated, and nothing else.
Do I include context?
Do I go in close, excluding anything that might distract while trying to hang onto the essentials?
Do I experiment, moving the main subject into the background?
Why not all three? Pixels aren’t pricey, and flowers like this at the end of September are priceless.
Oh, glorious! I love every version of these buds and blossoms with their contrasting stems and leaves. Your camera returns to me the visual acuity of childhood when blossoms’ colours and textures mapped a miniature geography. Somewhat like the bee with its multifaceted view of late-summer nectar sources, I bask in the still-warm sunshine while memorizing the hot, veined colours, hiving them for sustenance over inevitable winter.
Laurna – 🙂 I read recently that the reason time seems to speed up as we get older is that we’ve been there, done that, seen it all before. As a result, we don’t pay attention in the same way, and don’t lay down detailed memories as we go through our days. When we look back, we literally have fewer memories that mark the past year. I don’t know how much there is to this theory/explanation, but it makes some intuitive sense.
An interesting thesis from someone who apparently does not have the Helene-like hurricanes to deal with that pummel this family! I think the losses of attention on my part have something to do with the mud and destruction scattered about in the wake of such events. I should have commented, also, on the beautiful poem about prayer by Mary Oliver. I suppose some of my prayers are the poems, occasionally of the “blue iris” variety. But I notice that the “down in the vacant lot weeds” sorts of prayers are answered just as swiftly. My way also has been marked by gigantic miracles of the sort that allow KK to sing “Why Me, Lord?” Now, there’s a treasure trove to turn to on a dark day!
Laurna – I think the thought about paying attention had to do with “being in the moment” as we say these days. Being overwhelmed by collateral mud/destruction would have its own effect on our memory banks, I’m sure. And sometimes “more” is not “better.”
Something that my eye never saw until recently: A wasp had trapped and was eating a fly.
Tom
Tom – Nature, red in tooth and claw.
Nice photo lesson Isabel!!
Hollyhock?
Jim – Thanks, and yes, I think so.