I have always been interested in photography, and given my increase in free time (coupled with my ever-growing need for income), I decided to gather up several old point and shoot cameras and a very old, early-generation 8-megapixel Canon Rebel camera kit and see if they would sell on eBay (and give me enough cash for a newer camera and maybe even a lens or two). It was a big surprise to discover that old, point-and-shoot digital cameras are currently selling like hot cakes, and all three cameras and lenses I listed sold in a matter of hours for the full asking price, leaving me more than enough to purchase some more modern equipment.
I read countless reviews, watched many a YouTube video, and settled on a mirrorless micro four-thirds older Lumix camera that would work for both film and images. I even had enough in the piggy bank for a super-zoom lens and a fixed length lens with a nice, wide aperture. I was off….
The next challenge (too much YouTube watching) was to learn how to edit files shot in RAW format (the digital equivalent of developing film in a darkroom). At first I tried very hard to learn to use some of the free software available, but I wasn’t patient or knowledgeable enough to understand how to fidget with their numerous sliders and options, and finally settled on purchasing an Adobe subscription (of course, you can’t just buy the software any longer).
This past weekend at the cabin I have ventured out into the spring-awakening forest and stalked the loons along the shore (they always seem to dive beneath the surface just as I lock in the focus and get my aperture and shutter speeds where I want them)—all the while battling the epic swarms of blood-thirsty black flies.Â
As I’ve become more and more engrossed in finding the right framing for my shots, experimenting with shutter speeds and varying degrees of light, then working to bring the image to life on the screen of my computer with the help of Adobe AI wizardry, I’ve started to see that taking photographs that somehow start to tell a story and juxtapose things in such a way that they take your eyes on a journey is much like the craft of writing. It makes sense that writers like Flannery O’Connor and Elizabeth Bishop (two of my favorites) loved to paint, even though they were admitted amateurs.
Both writing and framing/capturing and shaping imagery (with photography, paint, pencil or any chosen medium) are deeply similar. Writers, however, have the humblest of toolboxes—monochromatic markings set against a blank page that somehow awaken full-color, three-dimensional-even people, places, things. And writers also have the ability to do something purely imagistic expression has more trouble doing; they can convey abstraction, ideas.Â
Throughout this post are some of the photographs I feel pretty good about, though I make no claim to their quality, and realize I have a long way to go. Still, at times they make me feel something akin to finishing an essay, a story, or a poem—through deep engagement with a place, I am starting to evoke and convey an emotion.
*Note: I recommend viewing this post on a computer and clicking on the photographs to expand them.
*All photos by the author.
Upgrading to a paid subscription will help me greatly in the creation of this newsletter (and in paying my bills). You can also offer a one-time contribution HERE.
You can listen to my podcast on the works of Ernest Hemingway HEREÂ
All lovely, but Charlie....steals the show.