Category: Leica photography

Innocuous

Photography and writing—as in life—consists of details small and large. When I tote my camera, I’m alert to details that shape the so called “big picture.”  It’s easy to get caught up in the bigger items [buildings, cars, trees, signage, e.g.] while things far smaller [cracks in the sidewalk, flowers, bird on a wire, e.g.] are thought of as incidentals to the place and moment I’m in.

But now and then, I tell myself to pay attention to details that are inconspicuous as well as innocuous. Such details remind me that in my own life, bigger, faster, more costly, etc. is not always better…

 

Immutable Across Time

 

I have often wondered how two lovers can be true to each other if they don’t know how to write…Your letters present to me a perfect picture of your everyday life, they are almost as good as if you were sitting on my knees with your arms around my neck and telling me how naughty you have been during the day and sealing each sweet avowal with an elliptical kiss…

Washington A. Roebling, from a letter written to his fiancee,  Emily Warren, April 1, 1864

Spring

Every March, we try to make our way up to Smith College to see their flower show. This is one of our favorite peripatetic sorties. Not surprisingly, most visitors appear happier or at least cheerful in demeanor. It’s gotten to the point where smartphone cameras rule the aisles; rarely seen is a “regular camera” as we know it.

 

The Focus Point

 

When you encounter a vista, or even a myriad of details that are attached to work [read: deadlines, projects, concurrent goals, e.g.], what do you see?

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Everything is subjective when it comes to expressing oneself with a painting, a short story, and a photograph. I know I’ve missed a few other examples, but I listed the aforementioned for expediency.

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Whether you’re taking a picture, painting a landscape or creating a marketing communication plan, sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees, and on other occasions, every nuance, every detail and purpose comes into clear focus.

While it matters where you’re looking, other times what matters more is what you are “seeing.”

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