““Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slave of the ordinary”. Cecil Beaton”
YES, YES, and YES! It is in these pictures especially that I am looking at colour, shapes, texture, patterns…trying to create something extraordinary. I “go in tight”, flip the image around, move the camera, open the lens wide open, layer, overexpose … the list goes on.
All the photographers that I have travelled with see things that others don’t, and this makes them special. I am trying to see things that others don’t and produce images that evoke emotion or are graphic. Some call it abstract, but then some don’t like the word abstract. Some call it creative, but I think all the work I do is creative in its own way. I am constantly reminded by Art Wolfe’s mantra “art in nature”.
Water Fall
This first image was taken on the northern Cornwall Coast where my husband and I were having a one-on-one with Ross Hoddinnott, a local professional photographer. We arrived at Sandymouth Bay. The tide was out. The views magnificent with different light from passing clouds and showers in the distance. But up close there was also much to be had. Just at the entrance to the beach was a rocky outcrop. And from that outcrop was a small ‘waterfall’. I took many full frame pictures including the waterfall and the surrounding rock. But the image that I loved was this detail of nature—the water racing down over the multi-coloured rocks. To me this was the ‘art in nature’ that I was looking for.
Tsingy Shadows
This second image was taken in the Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, Madagascar. The landscape in Tsingy is characterized by needle-shaped and needle-sharp karst limestone formations. To get here we had to trek in and embark on technical climbs up various ladders and rocks and through caves that required a bit of slithering. We were on steel cables as safety measures to enable a rescue if we slipped. So, not only was this well beyond my comfort zone, I had very little time to think about the photograph when we got to the top of the Grand Tsingy. Some of this was because it was very hot… no lunch…no room for water in the camera bag …. shattered upon arrival. And to really add to the exhausting atmosphere, the platform had a railing on only one side—with these razor sharp tsingy beckoning from below. Most uncomfortable. On the platform a group of photographers were clamouring to get “the shot”. So, I embarked on a different path. This is my most creative image of the day from this site. I went in tight I captured the golden light of the sun, and the shadows of the tsingy needles.…’art in nature’.
Snow Texture
Detail…in nature this can be so beautiful. This last image on the “go-in-tight’ genre, or rather focusing on the details, was taken in Lofoten, Norway. I was on a photo trip with Art Wolf, Ignacio Palacios, and Kevin Raber. We walked to the end of the road on the archipelago. We came upon snow covered rocks on the shore of one of the inlets. The sun was glistening and the snow was fresh, as it had just stopped a few minutes earlier. Who would have thought that such a simple view of snow-covered rocks could result in such an artistic image! Texture…patterns…and just so soft and beautiful…but again this is not your typical landscape picture of the large view. You would be hard pressed to figure out where it is taken. But for me, all you need to see is the beauty that nature offers up to us all the time. Sometimes …it really is in the details.