I have been taking photography courses since 2005. My earliest attempts at the medium were docmented largely with boring black and whites and digital lifeless images. While the many hours in the darkroom did not emediately yield what I considered worthwhile artwork, they did lay down the foundations of the equipment. Shutter speeds, apature settings and white balance.
A short time ago, I was on a walk in the woods. I was feeling rather depressed by the countless lifeless images I was beginning to amass. A typical photoshoot in the woods would produce 300 to 350 images and most of them were worthless. I needed a change.
I began to concentrate on the unusual. I would force myself away from yet another image of the far bank of the lake and shoot something different. I would shoot the gravel in the path, the leaves and stones. I would peer into the depths of the water and try to come up with something that would be of interest. The more I concentrated on the unusual, the more I saw. I have always had to work within the limitations of my equipment. One day while shooting the sun spotlighting the tops of a field of ferns, I accidentally shot it with an exreamly low exposure. The image it produced looked nothing like the subject matter I was shooting. Rather, it was a multitude of elongated shapes of muted yellow swimming in a sea of murky black. Totally underexposed. As I proceeded to delete it, I noticed that I could not take my eyes off of what I was seeing. It was so unlike anything I had shot before. This mistake was probably the most interesting image I had shot in weeks. So abstract. It was certainly a turning point in my work as a photographer.
Reflections
Kenoze Shoreline in Ice
Young Plant in Spotlight
Circle of Life
Roots and Stones