chapter 365

Photo Club 2014

seeing beauty

10/12/2014

link to Clifton Park Photo Club 2014 slideshow

(click little gear lower right choose 720pHD)

Look but not See. We all do it. Not wild animals; they are always cognizant of what they are seeing. Ever try to sneak up on them - not easy, they are always aware, engaged in the moment.

Did you see that the above picture was by Steve, from my club? My Cormorant shots were similar but did not capture the striking pose here. Details, details.

The linked slideshow submitted for your consideration is a trip into the netherworld. It transcends time and space yet is firmly rooted in digital reality. Within it you'll find my choice of photos from our photo club uploads.

It usually only takes less than a quarter second to capture an image but it can take a lifetime to get to that point. Adding up the man hours represented in the slide show you can easily exceed one million hours. To get good results you have to take a lot of bad pictures.

Beauty and Feeling are the primary characteristics for good photos. Do they have Impact, Emotion, or tell a Story? Composition, color, and geometry need to be right. While other technical camera nuances are important for fine image quality, there are so many technically correct photos taken that just lack heart. Also had to omit many beautifully done humming birds, etc. that have been included in the prior 2 years. Spice is the variety of life. Next year perhaps I should be looking for more local representations since travel to the Wild West is almost cheating.

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it (Confucius). To see beauty is to feel beauty. It's all around us. Don't live in squalor.

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever", Grandpa Hayden was fond of telling me. It's from John Keats but when you heard it often it kind of lost it's meaning. Try not to get all spiritual on you but 40 years ago he made for us a foot stool. It was kind of blocky looking with some left over upholstery that was not so attractive to me but was probably beautiful to him. It is now tattered and frayed but still has inner beauty. I compose this as I'm sitting dungarees and plaid shirt in my recliner with my homeless Virgil black cat to my side. Then I recall taking a slide of Gpa 40 years ago in his chair and I scan it.

This was what I remembered from my boxes of stored slides of Gpa 1973 snoozing with his cat named Burford. Spirits? My antique bottle with inside picture frame in the cabinet. Iowa State seal table cloth in background.

This week I passed down to my Grandson (BOY GENIUS) a rocking chair that I had sanded stained and put a clear finish on when our kids were little 35 years ago. Now I get it. A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

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