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The Photographic Eye
Oct. 23rd, 2008 03:57 pmSeven and a half years ago, my husband and I moved from a forty-acre, non-working farm to town. We had only lived on the farm for about a year and a half, but it was long enough to fall in love. While a good chunk of the acreage was devoted to pasture, an equally large portion was wooded. The land occupied the south-facing slope of a hill and the north-facing slope of the next hill. In the crease between hills, there meandered a small stream. The only thing missing from the land was a pond (which I understand that the new owners later constructed).
About the time we moved out there, I became interested in photography and the farm was a perfect place to engage my new hobby. Once or twice a month, I would tramp the fields and woods, snapping picture after picture, documenting the farm in all its seasons. I have several photo albums devoted to nothing but the various stages of life in the country.
And our dogs and cats, of course; we had only two of each at that time, and it was fun to take the dogs on a tramp with a camera at the ready. We could trust them off-leash, so while we leashed them to cross the road (the house was on one side of the road, the land on the other), once we were in the fields, we let them loose.
During the course of those precious months, I became a relatively competent photographer, which is to say that I got the shot that I was aiming at more often than not. My equipment was not particularly sophisticated: a decent SLR camera using actual film (*gasp*) and a telephoto lens. I loved using the telephoto lens. I like taking pictures of small things: pebbles, bugs, wildflowers. Grand landscapes aren't for me and I'm not interested in photographing people. But apple blossoms against a May sky, or three different colors of sweet peas, or possibly an idiot dog jumping into a stream instead of over it? Those are the sorts of pictures I like and my photo albums are full of them.
Shortly after we moved into town, we got a digital camera. Much smaller and lighter than that huge, old SLR, it became my camera of choice, especially for eBay pictures. But I find that my pictures aren't as nice as they were when we lived on the farm. Alas, film and developing are too expensive.
I find that as I take my daily walks, and often while riding somewhere, I am framing pictures in my mind. A few times, I even go back for them, only to find that my eye sees better than the camera. Nothing seems to turn out exactly as I had hoped with the digital camera, though I have gotten some wonderful -- and unprinted -- shots. My photo albums languish on my dresser, with no new pictures added in years.
Digital is okay, I suppose, but I really miss tramping my woods looking for hidden things to photograph.
About the time we moved out there, I became interested in photography and the farm was a perfect place to engage my new hobby. Once or twice a month, I would tramp the fields and woods, snapping picture after picture, documenting the farm in all its seasons. I have several photo albums devoted to nothing but the various stages of life in the country.
And our dogs and cats, of course; we had only two of each at that time, and it was fun to take the dogs on a tramp with a camera at the ready. We could trust them off-leash, so while we leashed them to cross the road (the house was on one side of the road, the land on the other), once we were in the fields, we let them loose.
During the course of those precious months, I became a relatively competent photographer, which is to say that I got the shot that I was aiming at more often than not. My equipment was not particularly sophisticated: a decent SLR camera using actual film (*gasp*) and a telephoto lens. I loved using the telephoto lens. I like taking pictures of small things: pebbles, bugs, wildflowers. Grand landscapes aren't for me and I'm not interested in photographing people. But apple blossoms against a May sky, or three different colors of sweet peas, or possibly an idiot dog jumping into a stream instead of over it? Those are the sorts of pictures I like and my photo albums are full of them.
Shortly after we moved into town, we got a digital camera. Much smaller and lighter than that huge, old SLR, it became my camera of choice, especially for eBay pictures. But I find that my pictures aren't as nice as they were when we lived on the farm. Alas, film and developing are too expensive.
I find that as I take my daily walks, and often while riding somewhere, I am framing pictures in my mind. A few times, I even go back for them, only to find that my eye sees better than the camera. Nothing seems to turn out exactly as I had hoped with the digital camera, though I have gotten some wonderful -- and unprinted -- shots. My photo albums languish on my dresser, with no new pictures added in years.
Digital is okay, I suppose, but I really miss tramping my woods looking for hidden things to photograph.
