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Archive for January, 2015

How I take photographs

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, perception, photography on January 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Moon

The moon has been very bright recently, so I thought, I wonder if I can get a decent photo of it? Not bad, huh?Isn’t it wonderful, and beautiful, and amazing?

This is how I take photos.

I thought I’d just share, at the start of the year, the foundation principles of my photography.

  1. First, never, ever go anywhere without a camera. That’s pretty easy nowadays when our smartphones have such great cameras in them, but I still prefer to take an actual camera with me too.
  2. Second, be prepared to be amazed. L’émerveillement du quotidien is the French phrase for it.
  3. Thirdly, photograph what catches your attention, or your wonder. That’s it I think. Oh, no, wait, there’s a fourth one!
  4. Take your time. You can just point and shoot, but you’ll get way more interesting and pleasing photos if you take your time. Change your position, your point of view, move the frame, zoom in or zoom out. If you are using autofocus, give the camera time to focus and make sure you’re focusing on the part of the view you want to be most sharp…….just take your time and press the shutter release only once you’re happy with what you are looking at.

 

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January – gateways and doorways

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography on January 2, 2015| 1 Comment »

January gets its name from Janus, the God who faces both ways, forwards and backwards, the God of gateways and doorways.

This is a good month to take the time to stand on the threshold of the new year, look back, and look forward, and see both which paths you’ve been following in 2014, and which new ones you might follow in 2015.

This door I photographed has clearly been doing its job for many years, and I love the way it has gradually evolved and changed. Clearly some of the panels needed to be replaced, but this is still the same door in the same doorway. It reminds me of the old philosophical question about a wooden boat which needs to have some of its planks replaced every year. By the time not a single plank from the original construction remains, can you still say it is the same boat?

So this month, is your month. And this is a month of the year you will have visited many times before (for me, this is the 60th January I’ve experienced), but every year brings a new January.

Every January, you think back to remember the moments from the year gone by, and you start to think ahead, to make plans for the year to come.

Every January, as you pass through your doorway, you’ll be crafting new elements onto the ones which were already there.

Maybe its an idea to take your time this month, allow yourself to reflect on 2014, and take a few moments to imagine how 2015 might be, imagine how you would like it be.

And amongst all this reflecting and planning, recognise that this a moment of passage, that January is a month for you to step, seemlessly, and deliberately, from last year into this one.

 

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Change

Posted in from the dark room, health, life, personal growth, philosophy, photography on January 1, 2015| 3 Comments »

1st of January today. 2015.

Outside there is a frost on the grass, and up above a cloudless, blue sky. 

As the sun rises it starts to melt the frost.

Here’s a leaf at the half way point.

Half frosted, half warmed and wet.

Like a yin yang symbol, lying there in the grass, reminding me of the cycles and rhythms of change, and of the beauty in difference and contrast, and stimulating me to think about 2015 gradually emerging from 2014.

Good morning.

Bonjour.

Bonne Année.

Becoming not being.

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