Intimacy

This past week I have been posting photos on my photo blog that I took some 2 years ago. I wanted to get back to my black and white roots. I missed them.

The digital camera that I used at that time, my Minolta DiMage A1, had a black and white mode, which I loved to use. Sure, you can convert from color to black and white, but this made it seem almost like shooting black and white.

Now, on to the intimacy:

When I lived in Texas, my photographic choices were limited. Texas doesn’t have a lot of greenery, nor water. That said, living in north Texas, it is difficult to do much nature photography. If you want an example of this, take a look at any photo book in the book store. You’ll fabulous pictures in books on Virgina, North Carolina, South Carolina, etc. However, when you get to the book on Texas you’ll see some cactus, a few mesquite trees, shrubs, and the scene that everyone photographs, the wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country.

In north Texas, there are few parks, most of the trees have been cut down to factiltate housing, there are few rivers and greenspaces.

I had to photograph what I could and make the best out of it, so I chose 3 places that I liked to photograph.

1. Las Colinas golf course – This was easy pickings, as they say. It was about 1/2 mile from my house. I used to go there on my way to work and photograph the golf course during the early dawn hours.

2. Trinity River Park – This was a long and very narrow park that ran along the Trinity river fork that came through Irving, TX. Basically it was several miles long, but perhaps a couple of hundred feet wide. You could always here the cars whizzing by.

3. Lake Worth – This lake was about 1 mile from where I worked. On overcast days, I would go to the lake and take pictures. This is where I got the picture of the fisherman.

So, why do I feel that my pictures taken in Texas were better than most of those taken here in NC?

I became very intimate with those 3 areas and my photographs show it, or at least I think so.

In June of 2004, I moved to Charlotte, NC. North Carolina is a nature photographer’s paradise! There’s so much to see and to take photographs of. In Charlotte, public parks, streams, rivers, trees, trees, trees abound everywhere that you look. There is such a thing as too much choice. Perhaps it’s sensory overload. I’ve been all over the place.

In evaluating my shots, I realize that the best ones come from the places that I have visited many, many times. For example, I always come back with good shots from Seabrook Island, SC. I know the island well. As a matter of fact, I’m going down there this weekend. This time, I think that I’ll take a walk on the inside of the island and photograph it. I’ve never done this before. There are beautiful trees with fantastic beards of Spanish Moss hanging down and lush vegetation everywhere.

So, now, with this knowledge in hand, I think that it is time for me to go those places that speak to me. Places where I can sit back, relax, wait, and listen to that inner voice. Places where I have that intimacy. Places that I understand.