Image Gallery Reflection
Pointing and clicking a picture has become the norm in my life before I found intentionality for taking pictures in this class. Before, a photo was merely a moment of life or feeling captured to live on in the attic of my phone gallery until feelings of remembrance capture my mind. This is not a reprehensible approach to capturing a moment, but unless I force myself, I would not know when, how, or why that random picture on my usual evening walks was taken.
Contemplating the meaning and reason behind the picture makes the act itself memorable in a way that I did not realize. I know why and when I took the picture. I can close my eyes and think of many pictures I have taken for this class that were memorable to me. One that comes to mind is a random stump I see during my visits to The Big Creek Park. I have lived in Roswell for five years, and that stump has been there the whole time.
Another one I am proud of is the picture of my dog’s favorite ball, rubbed with the light February snow in Georgia. I watch that picture, hoping the ice on its surface will melt and droplets will form. They never do. Or the staged picture of my dog’s toys resolving their relationship issues.
One early morning at the beginning of spring, as the clouds of fog draped their curtains over the Chattahoochee River. On that pier, among the people who prepared to kayak and other early morning dog walkers, I found peace. As though the fog was saying something to me.
Poetic indulgences aside, I have learned a great deal about the intention behind photography through the explorations in this class. The brief introduction to photographic composition provided in the class included leading lines, using diagonals, the rule of thirds, etc., all of which gave me a starting position from which to be creative in my own right. Experimenting with black and white photography was a fantastic exploration for me. Most of all, these techniques brought the audience/reader to the forefront of my creative endeavors.
I definitely do not know how light works through the lens of a camera, nor the intricate details of the indecipherable abbreviations of a camera’s settings, but I know where to point the camera at, who I am pointing at, and how that picture helps me tell a story that is beyond the image itself.