On the beach in Monterey, there is a ruin. I don't know if it is terribly old or not (by California standards that is!), or reallyeven a ruin, but it is one of the most interesting things on this particular beach. There are all kinds of tempting and tantilizing textures on the salt/water damaged wall. Unfortunately I was there at the wrong time of day to get photos of those textures (without getting wet that is.).
I happened to notice how different each photo I took, looked,
depending on what the ocean was doing. A big part of how different this picture looks has to do with what position the waves are in at the moment the shutter snapped.
If I shortened my focus, then it was much more up to me how the picture would look.
But if I widened my view from the closeup.
Each and every picture looks different. Hey! A ship on the horizon.
I began to think about this idea of not having control over what I'm focusing on. I can't tell this subject to smile, or look this way, or to "stay". It isn't up to me, except to be in the moment and let the photo happen that will happen. This is much easier to stomach with digital photo taking of course!
I love the idea that the end result is not something I can control. It is out of my hands how very important elements of this composition look, so there is a beautiful randomness in the result. Let's call it:
Cooperative Randomness.
And if you hang around long enough, of course the sunlight changes too. Which I also have nothing to do with. Which I am absolutely ok with. I have enough to be in charge of!
On the beach in Monterey, there is a ruin. I don't know if it is terribly old or not (by California standards that is!), or reallyeven a ruin, but it is one of the most interesting things on this particular beach. There are all kinds of tempting and tantilizing textures on the salt/water damaged wall. Unfortunately I was there at the wrong time of day to get photos of those textures (without getting wet that is.).
I happened to notice how different each photo I took, looked, depending on what the ocean was doing. A big part of how different this picture looks has to do with what position the waves are in at the moment the shutter snapped.
If I shortened my focus, then it was much more up to me how the picture would look.
But if I widened my view from the closeup.
Each and every picture looks different. Hey! A ship on the horizon.
I began to think about this idea of not having control over what I'm focusing on. I can't tell this subject to smile, or look this way, or to "stay". It isn't up to me, except to be in the moment and let the photo happen that will happen. This is much easier to stomach with digital photo taking of course!
I love the idea that the end result is not something I can control. It is out of my hands how very important elements of this composition look, so there is a beautiful randomness in the result. Let's call it: Cooperative Randomness.
And if you hang around long enough, of course the sunlight changes too. Which I also have nothing to do with. Which I am absolutely ok with. I have enough to be in charge of!
Great little process journey! Thanks for the trip.
ReplyDeleteI was reading Katie Pasquini-Masopust's book about design and think that some of these photos would make great base for a quilt. If you don't have that book, you should take a look. A good friend of mine gave it to me. ;-)