Making Eye Statements: Creating My Own Private World

“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all.

It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.”

- Arnold Newman, American Photographer, 1918-2006

My first blog of the new year…and I start with an unCanadian confessional hat trick: I don’t like the winter; I don’t like the cold; I don’t like the snow.

There, I said it. And I hope the ghosts of Chief Dan George, Sir John A. Macdonald, and Barbara Anna Scott don’t smite me.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I’ll thrive and grow, whatever the circumstances that come my way. But, given a choice, I’d prefer to do that thriving and growing in warmer weather without my snow boots on.

This aversion to the cold also affects my photography. Many of my talented peers in the Prince Edward County Photography Club and the Quinte Photography Club love rugging up and recording the beauty of winter. Me? I’d rather snuggle up inside with Bill and the dogs and stay warm.

Which brings me to this week’s blog posting – exploring close-up and macro photography using my new portable photo studio, which now sits impressively in the recently re-purposed train room in our basement. It is allowing me to play around with images of small objects, trying to make photos that highlight hidden beauties and unexpected visual gifts. In other words, creating my own private world where the sun always shines.

What follows are preliminary images from my first close-up session. They are all ‘works in progress’ – steps along the learning curve. I thank Elizabeth and Rick for giving us the beauteous amaryllis plant.

Enjoy.