I took this photo with my Polaroid Land Camera...on the beach. How do people get good beach photos with film cameras? Or with any camera, for that matter? I saw a few people with DSLR's and iPhones, and I thought they were crazy. Anyway, after cleaning a startling amount of sand out of my camera, I realized that it's a hassle to take photos. Would it be better to just leave the camera at home? (I don't think I could, honestly.) But sometimes I'd like to put it away for a while. Just experience life as much as possible, without trying to "capture" it. It's an illusion, anyway. Do we owe it to our children to provide visual evidence of their childhoods? Or do we water down our actual memories by taking so many photos, which in turn tend to modify the original experience?

All I know for sure is that my photos rarely reflect the reality of the moment. (I know, Ducky, no photo is reality...) But I tend to crop out a lot of visual noise, creating a MUCH calmer vision. I think I do this to create what I want to see. Kristopher Matheson and I had a discussion about this once, and I'm still not sure if I understand it all. Maybe our intentions vary, and maybe we won't fully realize those intentions until much later.

Anyway, the above photo is fairly close to what I was seeing. I have a mild obsession with horizons, and I think I could spend the better part of a week photographing the ocean. It's very soothing to me.

Comments

Ducky's here said…
Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts.

--- Garry Winogrand
Thersites said…
...now if only it were as easy to change one's frame of mind. ;)
Thersites said…
Ever notice that whenever you walk into a tardis, the inside get's a LOT bigger?

Sometime it helps to narrow your horizon.

Nietzsche, "The Gay Science" (124): In the Horizon of the Infinite. We have left the land and have gone aboard ship! We have broken down the bridge behind us - nay, more, the land behind us! Well, little ship! look out! Beside thee is the ocean; it is true it does not always roar, and sometimes it spreads out like silk and gold and a gentle reverie. But times will come when thou wilt feel that it is infinite, and that there is nothing more frightful than infinity. Oh, the poor bird that felt itself free, and now strikes against the walls of this cage! Alas, if homesickness for the land should attack thee, as if there had been more freedom there - and there is no "land" any longer!
Ducky's here said…
"This ridiculous-seeming activity of walking along the street and lifting up a little camera is so powerful, so complicated, and so resistant to being mastered. If I had the choice between doing that and sitting in an office somewhere … Are you kidding?"

-- Tod Papageorge
Ducky's here said…
What's the news on your daughter, Jen?
Jen said…
She is more stable now, hopefully going home today. Thanks for praying, Ducky and AOW. Much love to you....
Z said…
I couldn't agree more about the water/ocean, etc. I feel so blessed to live in Santa Monica.

I'm so glad your daughter's doing better. xxx

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