Images of a sunrise as the sun reappears over the horizon, a seedling sprouting from barren soil, or a rainbow stretching across the sky are often used to symbolise hope. They represent new beginnings, growth, and the promise of better days ahead.
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As a photographer I’m often fascinated by the way my camera allows me to capture a single moment in another person’s life. Especially so when I travel, when I’m very conscious that my out of the ordinary adventure overlaps for that moment with their everyday. They are getting on with their regular lives while I am taking time out of mine.
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While not exactly stormy, spring this year has definitely been wet and quite often cooler than normal. Yes, there have been odd days when it felt like winter was well behind us, with warm sunshine giving us all a lift. But within a couple of days the clouds had descended, the thermometer dropped, and the rain returned.
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If you cannot see a feeling, how can you photograph it? The answer is, by proxy. You photograph something that will evoke that feeling in the viewer, and/or you photograph a person evidently displaying that feeling.
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While I hope I can say of many of my photos that it ‘tells a story’, I have chosen to call this particular gallery 'Every picture tells a story' for a reason. As a song (and album) title, it fits perfectly with my theme, mixing images with music.
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'When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.' I find it hard to believe that I haven’t used that quote from Ansel Adams before!
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We can photograph our subject simply as it is, a faithful record. We can get creative, perhaps using black and white or playing with tone and structure, to produce an image close to the original but not purely representational of it. Or we can interpret the subject with such freedom that it becomes something other than it once was, an abstraction.
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It would be unusual if we weren’t motivated to pick our camera when we see a beautiful flower, an awe-inspiring landscape, an attractive or characterful person, an elegant building. But it would be a shame to restrict our photography only to those more obvious subjects. We can also look for the photogenic in everyday objects, looking at them with fresh eyes to appreciate their forms and textures.
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Sometimes a few words can enhance a viewer’s understanding of an image. After all, what else are captions for if not to explain?
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Dereliction and decay are natural subjects for black and white photography. The lack of colour adds to a sense of aging, perhaps because we associate it with the photos taken by past generations. Also, the textures of decay stand out more when colour is subtracted.
