Today’s post is just another one of those sorts where I show whatever photos I happen to notice, and say whatever comes to my mind. A bit undisciplined I admit, but it is pretty much how I operate.  My goal here is not to give too many answers, but rather to ask and provoke some questions,

While many of the photos I have made through the years were planned out, some meticulously and others less so, many others were made as an impulse. They were created on the “spur of the moment”.  Serendipity. Sometimes they answer questions, sometimes they create new ones.

Plan, plot, seek and search, but be willing to react without notice.  In photography as with most things, knowledge and preparation will bring success, but the willingness to react to those serendipitous moments will also often be fruitful.

Part knowledge and part instinct.

Pre-visualization, or that “pictures racing through my mind” syndrome, helps equally with planned and impulse images. You will have mentally been there before, even if you have never really been there before.

The first two images below are of the same waterfall, and were created only a few moments apart. Their similarities are obvious. They are both long exposures of falling water, and the rock that surrounds the falls seems to be made of the same compounds.  There are however differences in mood. The  narrow vertical image suggests a journey, back and forth, but above all, downhill.  A “narrow” journey with a ribbon of water

This horizontal image lets us know that the end of the downhill portion of that journey is here.  The waterfall has reached its destination as a river, but where will the river go? An answer followed by a question.

Wow a bright gold lighthouse?  Yes but no.

The paint on this lighthouse is white. The direct late afternoon sun is golden.  So I ask, if the lighthouse looks gold to the eye, and it photographs gold as well, is it not gold?  For those few moments when the sun took over the scene, did the lighthouse not become a true gold?

I suppose I could be accused of making the simple things in life seem too complex.  Maybe those who would say that are making the uniqueness of life seem too ordinary.

The personal view that each of us takes on any given subject, be it life itself
or the color of a lighthouse, is what makes us who we are.

I once spent an entire morning in a park attempting to locate and photograph some dark phase Gray Tree Squirrels.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I could have just as well been after images of a black, non spotted leopard.

Make every moment with your camera an adventure.

I ask the question, are a male Goldfinch, a lion, and a Sea Bass really any different from one another?  Pay attention, I will be giving a test at the end of today’s post.

The answer is, they certainly share in the chore of finding food.  I know I spend time figuring out what I will eat. I don’t hunt my food or gather it , but I need to know which cabinet or drawer to look in.

I would imagine that sunflower seeds make a nice meal for a Goldfinch, and this guy made a feast of them. The good news was, he cared little or nothing about my presence. Behavioral shots are sort of voyeuristic in nature. We are peaking into their lives.

Birds fly, but so does man.

I actually have forgotten when and where I made this image.  Are these the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds? I really do not know. I came across this in a folder and walla, there you are.

I would imagine this took some follow focusing to get the photo. It is a film image that was copied into digital format a long time ago. I included it today, because well, I felt like it.

Speaking (well, writing) about things in the sky.

I have made many images of the moon. While there is certainly no context to this “moon hanging in a dark sky” photo, my exposure choice does allow us to see the texture of the moon quite well. Where I placed the moon within the picture frame was a genuine compositional choice. I can see some of the power point and rule of thirds concepts being employed here. There are no real compositional rules, only aids to hopefully better pictures.

I love flower images of perfect blossoms. You know, the flawless ones. With that said, I always photographed anything I found interesting, and this spotted, petal torn, bug infested flower, obviously interested me.

Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.

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For those of you who wonder why I am so appalled at what is going on in the world and the U.S. today, remember that many years ago I named my first horse Freedom. Of all the choices in life, freedom, was the most important to me.

I revere the millions who have died to preserve what many today are willingly and in robot like fashion, giving away.  That being personal freedom.

The Civil War, and on and up to the marches and pain of the Jim Crow south, were fought to establish freedom, not a new form of a government “nanny state”. Remember,  this country which was formed on the premise of personal freedom, had a portion of that country, believing that it was okay to own human beings. The fight to end that, was a fight for personal freedom.

Freedom, is not established by turning our personal responsibilities over to a tyrannical government. The government does have an important part in our lives. That of protecting us from each other, invading forces, and from an overreaching government. That’s why we are a nation of laws. By the people, and for the people.

All of that of course rises or falls, on whether we are a freedom loving people.

Government indoctrination, is not a substitute for personal freedom…..or personal responsibility. It does not replace God, if you should (freedom) choose to honor and believe in such.

May God Bless,
Wayne