The wanderer seemed a fitting title for a post that does just that.

The fact is that this article only contains about 25% of its original volume of words.   I chattered on about anything and everything and then realized that it was way too much.  So I present you with a leaner version of The Wander than I first created.

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For much of my photographic life, I was careful with the words I chose to describe the act of making a picture. I was particularly careful not to use the words take, shoot or shots. It was a philosophical thing. While making pictures is a participatory activity, it has a gentle nature. Words like take or shoot, are aggressive and don’t really explain what most of us go through, or feel when we “create” an image. The problem is over the past ten years, and especially during my four years writing this blog, I have used words to describe someone making an image, literally, thousands of times. In fact sometimes, in ten sentences in a row I need a word to describe the act of someone tripping a shutter. I use making, creating, tripping the shutter and other words and phrases, but it becomes difficult to find something new. You cannot use creating and making alternately in ten succeeding sentences. Remember my writing does not merely consist of labeling a picture on Facebook or Flickr, or making a blog post twice a year. So I put the words shooting and shot back into my photographic vocabulary. I did so intentionally.

Through the years, especially the past nine, I have tried to “educate” the people around me about the words we choose. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way. I only mean that through my (and your) choice of words, I had hoped that other photographers would find the poetry behind the concept of making things, or creating things, and the thoughtlessness of aggressive terms like take, or shoot. I love photography and in what regards people hold that activity, means a lot to me.

Many of the world’s greatest and most sensitive photographer/artists regularly say or write, “I shot this at such and such a place, or I’m going out shooting tomorrow“. We all know they are not violent, and they are sensitive artists. I am sure there are others who say they take pictures. We can worry too much about the terms and words that people use.

The art of photography, or just plain art, can become laden with their own versions of political correctness. It is good to choose our words wisely, but at the same time, it’s not wise to become a snob about it and become just another part of the world that requires political correctness to be a “real” member. A “real” artist. In other words, heathens like us need not apply.

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Now let’s enjoy seven spectacular images from six awesome photographers.

I love it when wildlife photographers get a little outside the box. The great David Hemmings made this moody shot of a bear in the mist. The head shape of the bear would suggest that it is in the Grizzly family.

Another one of wildlife photography’s great image makers, Charles Glatzer made this graphic silhouette of an elk. I like the fact that it is a crisp image made at twilight but with very few warm colors. I also love his composition. Too many people take for granted comps in shots like this.

This shot of a Spirit Bear is another image by Charles. Most of these white (not albino) Black Bears are found in British Columbia. Black bears can cover the gamut of fur colors from pure white to true black.

This great shot of a small water cascade was made by Karen Hamilton Ashworth. The pano crop is perfect and the swirling motion of the water adds another dimension to the image.

Our next image is spectacular and was created by Karen Hutton. The location was somewhere in New Zealand. I don’t know her tech data but she did a great job of blending the sunlit areas with the shadows.

Another spectacular scene. This one was made in Scotland by Alister Benn. I truly feel like I was there when this was made.

Images like those made by our last two photographers sure do make you feel like traveling this wonderful planet.

With our ability today to hold details in the foreground of a scene, while still keeping the backlight of sunrise/sunset, deep and rich, not many photographers continue to make the old-fashioned silhouette, with a tree or a rock as the dominating shape. Thankfully Tim Grey did just that while in Utah. I love the wispy colors of sunset, complimented by the graphic shapes of the desert southwest.

Less is more. Often the most powerful images, are just plain simple.

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One of the scary parts of publishing a blog, is that quite often people on the receiving end of a post, may see things differently than I do. No, I am not speaking of my opinions. In addition to the pictures not always looking the same, the actual format is sometimes changed and distorted.

I send myself each post and if I go to the website that hosts my email account, I will see something differently than what I sent out. If I import that post into Windows Mail, there will be different variations (distortions) with the placement of pictures changed, and sometimes the location of text as well.  Then there are occasional strange things that happen to existing posts, right here within my blog.

I was reading the blog of a well-known photographer just yesterday, and I followed my own link to a page which I had left behind after a comment a few weeks ago. I clicked on it only to find that my post on workshops had completely lost all of the paragraph breaks. There was just one extremely long paragraph. That is not how I published it, and in fact, I answered a comment a few days after I posted the article and the paragraphs were accurately spaced then.

I bring this up so you will realize that odd things happen to blogs, especially when you read them via email. I would prefer you not think me totally illiterate. Thanks.

Have the best of days, and may God Bless,                                                                                 Wayne