Skewed View

Ever since I got my camera, I've been taking
pictures every day. It makes me think: what's the allure of taking photos? What makes it 'artistic'? To me, art has always meant "making" something. With your hands. I never quite understood photography, although I like taking pictures, and I love looking at other people's photos. Photography was a mystery.

When I was in my early 20s, I was engaged to a man named Tony. I don't know what I was thinking. It was clearly, SO clearly, a mistake. He was a photojournalist, and a very good one at that. Associated Press Photographer of the year, all kinds of awards, etc. He was, of course, a workaholic. But he could take the most beautiful, touching, wonderful pictures. I got to play with his cameras every once in awhile, and learned that in photography, good tools make a big difference. He taught me a little bit about framing, about how to look for the most interesting thing happening in any given scene. I think what he was trying to tell me was that good photography (pardon the pun) is about focus.

I don't know very much about photography, and I'm just learning to use my new camera. I'm trying to learn what I want to 'accomplish' with this new artistic medium. I was thinking about this on my walk this evening, out along the water. The wind was blowing and the trees were making the most wonderful rustle.

The light wasn't the best - still too early, still too bright and overcast. But as I walked, I realized that I was looking for ways to portray how I experienced the walk. Which scenes got my attention, what sensory experiences caught my focus as I walked. How can I express how I see the world, through a camera lens?

So maybe that's part of it. Making pretty pictures is one thing. Capturing moods, lighting, point of view -- another. All you 'real' photographers out there are probably laughing at my completely bumbling attempts to figure out what you already know. To me, it's a whole new world. It means I can illustrate my blog, my website. It means that I have a fast, instant way to capture moods and events. It also means that I get to think about expression in a completely new and different way. How do I see the world? What's important to me?

I see that as I fill up this free blog with photos, I will need a new (paid) blog very soon. I am going to be brainstorming names for my business, blog, and website. "Daphne's" is fine, but it doesn't really say what I want it to say, except that, well, it's me. "Somewhere I Have Never Travelled" is poetic, but kind of difficult to write out. So sometime, soon, there will be a new, fancy, probably Typepad-powered blog. With lots of photos! Just giving you fair warning. And hopefully, I'll stay there for awhile.

Also, I'll be uploading lots of photos to my Flickr page (see link in the column over on the right). So you can check out all the doings, whenever you like.

Terri's coming home soon. Time to whisk around and make the house cozy for my weary traveller.