Photography is a medium that the majority of people can participate in. That’s a good thing.

It has been argued for going on two hundred years whether it is, or can be, an art form. I am someone who believes that almost anything people do can be elevated into art. Certainly photography is included, although art is and always will be, in the eyes of the beholder.

When I taught workshops on location,, I rarely used the term art because in the first place, it would scare some students away, and secondly, it would attract others for that singular purpose. I wanted people to come and learn photography no matter whether they thought it was or wasn’t art.

Once again, art is in the eye of the beholder.

Those who know me well, know that I “have a thing” for mood and/or atmosphere. I watch old TV shows and movies, oft times just because of the mood and atmosphere they provoke.

The same with paintings, and yes sometimes with photography.

When Twitter turned to X, admittedly the first day it seemed odd to me. By day two I loved the idea that someone had the nerve to replace the entrance page from what it was, to a tiny little x, Nothing lese, just an x. It had a strange feeling to it. My kind of guy.

Minimalism.
Photos can be minimalistic, or complex.

I am in no way suggesting here that I was ever an artist with a camera. I am saying that I could recognize what I believed to be art, created by God or man. Art as I see it, through the subject, the color, the direction of light, the texture or more.

My job was to “see art”, and know how to capture it and share it. Then my job was to pass that knowledge along for others to use.

One of the most gratifying photo related jobs I was paid for, was to along with another photographer, judge a fine art photography competition.

The imagery was mostly phenomenal. So much vision, and so much mood and atmosphere. Captured via the technical aspects of cameras, and done via personal taste.

The credits I mention below are not a brag. What I am saying is, if I can do this successfully, so can any of you.

I was blessed enough as a photographer to get published in magazines, including covers and two page spreads, books including National Geographic, calendars including covers and on up. I was once written about and featured in a magazine. Again I say this not to brag, but to illustrate that others can certainly do that, if I can do it. Probably better.

Submitting images for consideration is obviously simpler in the digital format than it was with physical transparencies or black and white prints. It is also pretty difficult for them to steal your JPEGS for use on the internet, and not pay you. Everybody can see them.

One time I sent a series of medium format (6×7 and 645) transparencies to an art gallery in Georgia, and after I sent registered letters, and made several long distance phone calls (remember expensive long distance calls?) two years later I finally got my work back. There was no check to accompany the images. I wonder just how many prints might they have sold without paying me?

Below I share with you some of my images. They are not on this blog to show you what a great artist I am. I would have chosen different images if that was my plan. As I have said, art is in the eye of the beholder.

The purpose here is to help illustrate that there is art all around us, just waiting for the click of the shutter in order to share it.

It’s a matter of opinion, but I can guarantee you, you can create what is art, in most people’s opinion. It is a matter of technology, but it is also a matter of “vision”. Not eyesight but what’s inside of you waiting to come out.

Set what’s inside of you free. Get it out of you and share it!

If there is any art to my images below, I did not create it but I recognized it. Often hours, days or years before I found it and clicked the shutter. It lived in my mind for a long time before I found it. .

One of the most obvious aspects of photographic art, is to work at the edges of light. Be it the cold blue of some dawn or dusk days, or the warm and fiery reds of others.

Of course flowers, be they planted by man or God, are naturals when it comes to art. It is often, that the things that man builds to accompany flowers can also be art. We only need to :“see them”, and I mean truly see them, and have the knowledge and the feeling to record what we see, and share it.

Animals can surely be art. Their actions, colors and shapes, and the light and/or patterns around them, all give to us art. We need to see it and capture it. In images of course.

Color can be art and art can be color, but not necessarily so. Monotone, plus weathered wood and a journey (over the bridge) to be had, can be art if we imagined the image as black and white. I envisioned that the second I saw it.

While I have always been an outdoor photographer first and foremost, there are times when I miss setting up studio lights or flash, and creating my own images in every way while indoors. Assemblying it, piece by piece.

Discover and “see” the art around you, and, and then share it photographically with the world.

God Bless,
Wayne
Often the best way to share the Gospel, is put up the words, and let people read it for themselves.
Some people not only choose what parts of the Bible to read, but what parts to bielieve. We cannot turn to the Bible to hear what we want, but rather to hear what God wants us to know.
Sometimes in life, it’s all or nothing. I have not always lived that way, but with this subject, half way does not count..
John 16:33
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation.” Be of good cheer ,I have overcome the world. (on the Cross)