At the beginning of January I posted an entry of what I thought were my ten best shots of the year 2012. You can revisit that entry here. Jim Goldstein of JMG-Galleries asked for the photographic community to submit entries of blog posts, flicker albums, etc. to be considered for a listing of posts of the entrants' ten best shots. The results were posted today here on Jim's blog. There are three hundred listings, and I'm honored to have had my blogpost included (#114). Jim highlighted a number of those entries (with three asterisks - ***) on the list of those he found most interesting, a group in which my entry was included. Again, honored to be included in such a select and accomplished group of photographers.
A list of three hundred links is a lot of material to digest. So far I've gone through those that Jim highlighted and have come away with some thoughts I'd like to pose. There are many types of photography represented that cover a very broad range of subject material. To do any of them well requires hard work, technical expertise, insight, and an artistic sensitivity. All those that were highlighted exhibited all of that. The material on many of the sites I viewed so far was of landscape, nature, and architecture. Also much of the material was of exotic locales. And almost all of the photography was in color.
Why do I shoot what I do? I love a beautiful scenic landscape - to look at, enjoy, and feel a spiritual connection with nature, but if there isn't a person in the scene, I don't feel any compunction to take a photo. I love to travel - new places, exotic or not, offer new insights and new culture, but I don't have to travel hundreds of miles somewhere to find an interesting person or situation to capture - fifteen miles to New York City is far enough for me. I love the stimulation of color something as complex and deep as a work of art, or something as ubiquitous as a street scene, but the color images I capture don't really begin to sing to me until I begin the conversion to tones of black, white, and gray.
Something as mundane as a scrubby bearded guy with a silly winter hat walking with intense purpose makes my shutter finger itch, brings a twinkle to my camera eye, and connects me to every average person walking on any street anyplace I have my camera with me.
A list of three hundred links is a lot of material to digest. So far I've gone through those that Jim highlighted and have come away with some thoughts I'd like to pose. There are many types of photography represented that cover a very broad range of subject material. To do any of them well requires hard work, technical expertise, insight, and an artistic sensitivity. All those that were highlighted exhibited all of that. The material on many of the sites I viewed so far was of landscape, nature, and architecture. Also much of the material was of exotic locales. And almost all of the photography was in color.
Why do I shoot what I do? I love a beautiful scenic landscape - to look at, enjoy, and feel a spiritual connection with nature, but if there isn't a person in the scene, I don't feel any compunction to take a photo. I love to travel - new places, exotic or not, offer new insights and new culture, but I don't have to travel hundreds of miles somewhere to find an interesting person or situation to capture - fifteen miles to New York City is far enough for me. I love the stimulation of color something as complex and deep as a work of art, or something as ubiquitous as a street scene, but the color images I capture don't really begin to sing to me until I begin the conversion to tones of black, white, and gray.
Something as mundane as a scrubby bearded guy with a silly winter hat walking with intense purpose makes my shutter finger itch, brings a twinkle to my camera eye, and connects me to every average person walking on any street anyplace I have my camera with me.
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