Photography:  What possible job or hobby could anyone have, that allows them to share subjects that fill us with passion, and do so with images that allow us to show our personalities.  I think this goes doubly when the natural world is your subject.  You are in a partnership with nature.  The earth, the sky, the plants and the animals. For me personally, it is a way to honor the Creator of all of those aforementioned subjects.   I truly believe that the subjects that I share with you on the pages of this blog, are a partner with me in the pictures that I make.  I never deserve full credit when my subject is nature

One of the things that I love about photographing waterbirds, is the water. My files are stuffed with images that transform the ordinary into the special, all due to the water that accompanies the bird in that photo.  A mix of sky reflections and shoreline reflections made this rather ordinary image of a Horned Grebe, visually stimulating.  The secret with this image is to look at the entire image graphically, rather than fixate only on the bird.  The sky, the water and the bird were my partners.

I made three trips in four days to Arapaho NWR in Colorado. There were a variety of reasons for that but White-tailed Prairie Dogs were the biggest of those reasons.  I especially liked these young “pinto” colored dogs.  They are not capable of hiding their exuberant, yet cautious persona.  I was privileged to have them as my partner for a few days.

This curious immature Black-crowned Night Heron was like a five-year old child.  Endearing but mischievous.  I actual used an 18mm lens for some shots.  I was in my car and at one point I lost sight of my young friend. I leaned over to the passenger seat of my car and peered out of the window.  He/she was standing on its tip toes (so to speak), and trying to look into the car.  What a great partner.

We are in a partnership with every flower or tree…..and every fallen leaf.  The leaf and the frost were provided by nature…..our partner.

While an abstraction of a scene of a large waterfall, may say a lot about my personal vision of that scene, it also says a lot about falling water.  Partners.

I absolutely consider the land to be my partner just as I do the animals.  Soil, rock, wind and water all sculpt the land into those patterns that make landscape photographers look like artists.  Often land, plants, water and sky are all a part one single image.   My job is to search for a way to make my personal statement about the scene before me.  A personal statement + a view into what the land offers.  The photographer/model relationship is important if the finished image is to succeed.  Partners.

The Arkansas River in Colorado. Water, sky and geology came together, thanks to my partner.  My job was to visually arrange it.

Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado/Utah.  Color, texture, blue sky and clouds were provided by my partner.  Composition is courtesy of the photographer.

This desert oasis is called Sitting Bull Falls in New Mexico.  After a ride down a desert road with an almost empty fuel tank, and another ride away from Sitting Bull Falls, traveling literally across the desert itself with my rental car, and finally running out of gas 50 feet from a gas pump……..I was happy that my subject posed willingly.

When we photograph nature we are not building an image from the ground up like a studio photographer.  We are searching for ways to tell nature’s story, as she guides us. We form a partnership with nature and she introduces us to all of her children.  We are given the opportunity to interpret our subjects, but must rely on a partnership to tell their story.

Sometimes I think that anyone who has read a lot of my writings just might get a little confused.  Take the topic of photography subjects.

I have so often sung the praises of nature as a subject. Then in other articles I have written I have said when photographers find good subjects they should photograph it.  “Photographers make pictures” is something I say often. To me there is no confusion but to clear things up a bit….here we go.

I think any photographer who finds an interesting or stimulating subject of any kind should  make pictures.  Photography is part you and part your subject, and you get to make the decision on what to make pictures of.  There is very little in this world that I have not photographed at one time or another. Having said that there is nothing wrong with having a special subject.

For me, the natural world is a sacred part of life and it stands above other subjects.  Most of what I photograph in nature is not created by man.  Even if someone planted it, it is certainly not created by that person.  There is no other subject that takes me on a spiritual journey, as often as nature does. It is that one subject, that one enormous subject, that raises me to another level.

As many of you may know, I have a second subject.  Human history whether it be an old fort or mansion, an empty (seemingly) battlefield or an abandoned 1970 farmhouse, screams of the human life that existed there. These places feel alive to me not dead.  History is personal and special to me and only nature inspires me more.

You may have a different special subject. We should all fulfill our own destiny, not that of someone else.

To me……and don’t be angry as this is only my opinion, photographers who want to totally create all of their images can at times seem a bit self-indulgent.  Most of us interpret and share an existing subject that we find interesting, or dare I say even sacred.  We develop a partnership ( I should write an article about that), and show you our vision of something that we think is important.  Even when we create abstracts we are forced to admit that what we found in nature, or along the highway, or in that junk yard, is as important as we are.  The builder of images, seems to say, look at me and only me.  Building ground up images as a portion of what we photograph, or using it as a learning tool, I think is quite different. It can be a good teacher.  Again this is only my opinion.

I hope some of that makes sense

With Christmas here and gone there still remains some of our most lovable Americans in need of your help.   People still commit unspeakable acts against helpless animals.  What must those animals think of our species?  Only good people can turn that around.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals continues to lead the crusade against these acts.  Please help an innocent animal today.

As a follow-up to an opinion I gave on a previous blog, I would like to answer Paul, last name withheld.  Paul is a photographer and we have bumped into each other in many photography related forums over the years.  He has given me permission to use the subject of his email to me in the Earth Images Blog.

In that earlier post I gave the names of two photographers who’s work that I have become acquainted with recently.  The point of that paragraph was to state that there is an enormous wealth of photographic talent being developed as we speak.  Some amazing artists. I added the caveat that new camera equipment/software  advances are also having a major impact on what I am seeing.  It’s not entirely the photographer.

Paul wrote that “a monkey could produce the image improvement I am seeing”, it is all equipment.  I have been hearing that since I was 19.  If you give us ten photographers who get the new super mega pixel, noise free, super focus cameras, along with software that turns every image into art, two will make images that everyone agrees are not very good, six will make incredible pictures, and the final two will prove themselves to be artists, or award-winning craftsman.

This latest round of camera upgrades does leave every veteran in a quandary.  How long before you will not even be able to show that golden stockpile of images that you have created over the past 5 to 10 years?   Maybe you can afford the software that may improve those images.  You have just spent years pouring out your heart and soul into your image making, and now you can’t afford what Joe Shmoe has got….and you know that you’re a better photographer.  It doesn’t seem fair. If you wait for the world to become fair, that world will simply pass you by.  In a free world/country, you simply have to find a way to afford what you need.  It has to be that way, if you want a world where you get to control your own destiny.

At every step of my photographic life there have been photographers who were greater than I was.  I am not a fool and I have always recognized that.  At the same time I have accomplished quite a bit and have been better at the craft/art of photography than some others.  No brag just fact. I cannot say it is not difficult to watch some others that have been of lesser talent, suddenly make quality images of technical superiority to anything I can make.  It’s even worse when they think that they suddenly developed “new talent”.   It always pays to not get too “full of yourself”. It is good to hold the truth as your memory.  Having said all of that if I were still shooting today, I would do what I could to move up the scale of technology, so I could make those technologically superior images too.  I would also humbly accept any applause that would accompany those pictures. Who wouldn’t.

Any way you choose to look this subject, there are more great images out there today than ever before, and for someone who has become primarily an arm-chair quarterback, it is fun to watch.

I would also like to take a moment to thank all of you friends who have supported me for so long.  In some cases we are in private contact and with others we are not.  You are still out there and I appreciate it.  If I have been half the friend to you that you have been to me, my life is a success.

Have a great day and God Bless,  Wayne