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I've just been listening to a very interesting podcast by Brooks Jensen on his daily.lenswork.com website, in which he discusses how photographers 'see' things that non-photographers miss.
I get what he's saying, as I know that I'm constantly assessing what's in front of my eyes not in terms of its physical reality (it's a mountain, it's a house etc.) but in terms of its tonality, position in a framed composition, colour palette, light and so on. I drive Liz crazy by going into raptures wittering on about the quality of the light on a particular scene.
But I've noticed that, if I don't do photography for a period of time, say a week, I start to lose that ability to 'see' photographically, and I start just to see what's in front of my eyes, rather all the subtle nuances that go into the consideration of a scene from an artistic point of view.
I could be that our artistic vision starts to get flabby with lack of exercise, just like physical muscles start to waste away if not used. (This winter's been a killer in that regard!)
For this photo, taken as Liz and I were walking along the dunes at Llandudno's West Shore, my artistic vision was fully up to speed, and while the physical reality of the scene was just some grass on a dune and a cloud, to me this was a wonderful juxtaposition of shape, tone and texture, and I already had this post-processing contrast enhancing treatment in my mind's eye as I waited for the cloud to reach the perfect position over the dune.
I wonder if I hadn't been photographing a lot prior to this occasion, whether or not I would have 'seen' this at all?
Filename - dune cloud 01.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 45mm
Exposure - 1/40sec @ f11, ISO200
Location - Llandudno, North wales
This image - 450x800px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - Polarising filter used to darken sky.
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