One of the reasons why I am galloping through my photgraphic history is that a while ago I was so fed up with my art that I was thinking of throwing everything away or at the very least giving all the stash and art media away. And finding another less messy hobby.
Over the years I have had many other hobbies - I learned to play the flute for a while, I did 4 years of Creative Embroidery, I slightly flirted with Patchwork and Quilting. Actually that mostly involved buying fat quarters and stroking them, rather than actually making anything.
I think there were other things - oh yes - quilling, scrapbooking, and I expect other things will come to mind.
But as each of these interests has come and gone, photography has remained as a constant. I may not have taken photographs every week but the camera was always available.
When I discovered digital cameras, firstly with a compact camera
and then with a Bridge Camera
it released me to take thousands of photographs. In fact the last photograph I took was numbered 1,170,314 and that doesn't include the compact camera or the camera on my phone! It's no wonder my hard drive keeps filling up!
So what is it that draws me to photography.
There's the obvious - I can record
- places I visit
- family occasions
- my son growing up
- holidays
- church events
But if you had the time (and the patience) to trawl through my 1 million plus images what would you find?
Actually, not many photographs of people. There are photographs of Andy growing up. And of his wedding to Naomi. There are a few sets of church events and a record of my parents 60th Wedding Anniversary party.
But really I don't take photographs of people. Unless when we are on holiday people walk into the photo I'm taking or spend too long in the way of what I want to take and because I'm impatient I have to include them.
There are lots of photographs of nature - flowers, grasses, trees. And a great many landscapes.
There are quite a lot of photos of my art work so that I can upload the work to Flickr groups or to my blog.
There are lots of pictures of buildings and parts of buildings. Like a
close up of some bricks! Or chimneys or part of a door. Some of these
were taken when I was doing the Creative Embroidery course and needed
images of pattern or texture to inspire or inform the embroidery.
And then there are the ones where I took a totally different view of something than from the usually viewpoint like the Sydney Opera House roof but from inside the building.
Or the quirky. A totally relaxed gorilla!
Or patterns in the street. With a bit of added quirkiness! I loved the plastic swimming rings against the paper balls.
And then there's light. Early (or early-ish) morning light and as with the photo below, late afternoon light.
And yet I don't really think I've answered the question of why I have kept coming back to photography and why I spend so much time on it.
I guess I'm still trying to get that elusive photograph that really speaks to me. I don't go out on photography field trips much. I go out for a walk or a visit and take my camera with me and along the way I take photographs for all the reasons outlined above.
And occasionally I come up with something that I really love. I took this photo last week and I love it. But it was just a fleeting moment. I didn't go out to take this photo. It was just there. And I took the opportunity.
It's a mix of colour, pattern, shapes and texture that I like. And yes it does have people in it. But this time it was deliberate as it needed something to give it a sense of proportion.
So why photography? Because I love it. Because it can be many things. Just because!
Oh and I mentioned the million plus thing to Roger and he wonders whether the first photo I took on the camera was actually numbered 00001!
What do you think?
