Monday 22 June 2015

'A camera always looks both ways.'

Freeman Patterson says in his book, Shadowlight, "A camera always looks both ways. I have to accept and deal with this fact - the reality that my images are as much a documentation and interpretation of myself."




It is Sunday afternoon, the summer solstice, and it will be light still for hours. Friday evening, I was in the garden photographing some multi-layered blue geraniums until 9 pm.


 I stopped, more because I was tired, than because of the fading light. These beautiful evenings are a photographer's dream.


Whenever I complete a series of photographs, I immediately transfer them to iPhoto and begin the first level of culling.  As I watch them downloading on the screen, I experience a sensation similar to the incredible high I used to feel when I had an intense day painting in the studio.

 In that moment, I so loved what I had painted, only to face the canvas, the next morning, without the adrenalin rush.  Parts of the work sang, other parts needed a fair bit of work: it was the act of doing that had excited me. So it is with photography.


                          click on any picture to see a larger image






When I went to a doctor's appointment last week, I was asked to list my sports & recreation. Tempted as I was to write 'sky-diving' and 'roller derby ace' (to see if anyone really reads the forms), I wrote gardening & photography.   Really, I could have written photographing in my garden. Or, to be more accurate, being deeply absorbed and soul-connected to my plants, with my camera the vehicle for this intimacy.





Subtlety and boldness.  Contrast and harmony.  Tightly-held buds and browning petals. With my fabulous macro lens, I move ever-closer to my subject, delighted when I notice that I have unknowingly captured 'on film' a fat white spider or a black small beetle.








On a Pennington poppy, there is a dusting of blue pollen on the red petals; nature has provided perfect complimentary colours.   My gentle attention has uncovered fairy dust.




 As I step gently among the flowers, I see how the light is falling and how one colour seems to drift into the next.  I understand that my passion for our garden is what sustains my love for picture-taking, and how this love spreads in ever-widening  circles.


                  *I should be receiving the Epson printer next week!*





5 comments:

  1. The detail in your photos truly reflects the intimate connection you have with your plants and flowers. One is aware of how much pleasure you get out of this new art form because it takes a lot of patience and time to get such spectacular results. And I didn't know there were blue geraniums! Can't wait to see your results from the printer.

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    1. the blue geranium is a perennial 'hardy geranium' as opposed to the bedding plant geranium, or pelargonium. This variety is a ruffled, fanciful variety.

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  2. You and your camera in your garden together create magic and beauty.

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  3. these are gorgeous! I'll show Stella the fairy dust. xo Hilary

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  4. A quiet and intimate moment....a meditation in stillness among plants....bringing calm and joy, what more is there in life - Deb

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