Bookends of Fowey - Blue - Fowey / Cornwall (UK) - 09 Sep 2009 (picasa)One my favourite photos from the trip to Europe in Aug/Sep 2009. Just a really simple photo that uses colour. I could not get my camera out fast enough when I saw the dog and it's blue vest with the blue walls of the
Bookends of Fowey Bookshop.
Colour photographs have often been derided by the artists of the photographic community. A real photographer sees and shoots in
black and white and the greyscales between (with a quick search I found this excellent blog post -
Color Vs. Black and White by
Do do doo Art Critique - yes there is more to it all than you think).
To me this photo shows the beauty and simplicity of colour photography. I also like the green fern pots in the top right and the image conforms to an old saying of my Grandmother -
'blue and green can't been without some white in between'I love using my camera when traveling. After a few days you start to see as your camera would. You are the one who pushes the shutter. Scenes come and go - decisions are made in an instant or sometimes over a longer period - some situations and scenes you miss and some will be captured. Your eye is trained from all your
past experiences using a camera as well as the knowledge you have gained from viewing other people's photos and paintings, as well as your readings on all things about photography. After a while you develop your own style and your eye is trained for the
present moment to capture a photo using your photographic vision. The photo then becomes part of your
future - this post being just one part of it for this particular photograph.
The theme of the
past,
present and
future has come up a few times in the last 4 days. One from a quote from a photographer
Nan Goldin from a TV Series titled
The Genius Of Photography (better details
here). A quote from
Nan Goldin's experiences follows:
'As the memory of her sister started to become hazy, Goldin began to take pictures to preserve the present, and thus her fading memories of the past. She photographed her friends so she would never lose the memory of them, as had happened with her sister. Her photographs were her way of documenting their lives, and, in turn, her own.'The other is from a blog post by
Paul Coelho announcing the completion of his new book to be titled
The Aleph (the title being inspired by a short story of the
same name by
Jorge Borges - English translation
here).
Paul Coelho writes about the book:
'Why did I take so long to write about this pilgrimage? Because it took me three full years to understand it. It is not a travel guide. Of course I describe what does it mean such a long trip in a train, but the main goal is the long trip to my soul, past, present and future.'Definitely look forward to reading it when it is published here next year.
[Today - Saint Patrick's Day is my 30th Anniversary of employment. Like most anniversaries, I guess it is a day of reflecting on the
past, present and future. I have been with the same company all that time - though it's name has changed 4 or 5 time and has become significantly smaller (gone from 13,000 to around 800 employee's). Obviously seen a lot of changes. I have learnt a lot and look forward to getting back to work in a week and a half, after a 3 month break.]
