Random Photo Notes, Vol. 10
These are just some notes I have written about a few of my favorite photos. They range from social media posts to descriptions on my homepage, sometimes handwritten notes made in the field. They are not in chronological order.
I’ve always found it helpful to put words to my images, whether in the form of scribbling exposure settings in a notebook or writing about composition.
If photography can be partly considered the organization of the visible chaos that surrounds us, then I believe writing can be somewhat to do with taming the invisible and internal.
Looking back on my notes has always helped me to reflect on my technical and creative progress, as well as on my journey through life.
Lord of the Wood, 1/2/23
Rain brought atmosphere and rich color to a favorite patch about an hour from my home, and this peculiar tree stood out to me. Located off trail along a small creek, I struggled somewhat to compose the photo due to clusters of small trees and vines (which I was careful not to trample). I named the photo after a monster dreamed up by H.P. Lovecraft, also known as Shub-Niggurath, “a perverse fertility deity, said to appear as an enormous cloudy mass which extrudes black tentacles, slime-dripping mouths, and short, writhing goat legs.”
Fool’s Gold, 2/3/23
For lack of a better name, I decided on this one after thinking back to this sunny winter afternoon when I stood foolishly in a field by myself for hours. There was something truly special about the weather that day in early February.
Low humidity, cool temperatures paired with direct sun, and colors and textures that seemed to pop everywhere I looked in an otherwise unspecial mountain meadow. There seemed to be a fun pattern to the golden sunlit grass that begged to be photographed so I sat on this scene for a good hour playing with various focal lengths and positions, as the light shifted around me.
Call me foolish but connecting with nature in this way proves to be one of the most enriching practices in my life, time and time again.
Uplift, 2/26/23
I recently followed a fellow nature photographer’s advice in order to get physically closer to my subject while zooming far into it, using a telephoto lens stacked with both a teleconverter and macro extension tube. Technical things usually don’t motivate me to photograph, but I admit this new knowledge did help me to visualize this simple scene. It reminded me of my earlier days during COVID when I was teaching myself skills and absorbing tons of information about photography. In other words, I was like a kid in a candy shop all over again. It was like a light went on in my mind.
In terms of composition, I found the leaf’s texture and color interesting, particularly against the green mossy bedding where it had come to rest. I also found the twigs to be interesting supporting elements in the overall design. The leaf, though dried and brown, appears exalted and special as though nature reveres its sacrifice.
