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Friday, July 9, 2010

::art in place + a commitment to resourcefulness::

It's called a "sense of place" in literary studies, and it can be achieved through words, music, a tone of voice, precise movements, or images. In other words, the art forms.



Think:
cultural icons and idyllic notions,




the many shades of green,



quirky people
(the kind authors model their turning-point characters after),




very specific food,




Ugly old buildings pouring forth food, fun, and general liveliness,



And vulnerable vessels, ready to transport.
A 'Sense of Place' that can be shared rests here, in these elements.

I hope one day I will have the equipment and the talent to take pictures like these.... and capture the charm of living.

I've always loved photos, and the sounds of my old Rebel G, the shutter shuttering, the flash flashing, and the film winding on the very last picture.

But digital is better; it's more practical and easier to learn about settings. I have the lenses from my old camera; I just hope in the next few years I will have the digital body and can relearn all those old facts I used to know about the formulas for aperture and shutter speed. I've lost them in my years of pocket-sized digital.

Although, I must say, it's fun trying to manipulate my little Sony Cyber-Shot to do what I want it to do; although, we usually have to compromise. It has to give a little more; I have to expect a little less. It's a beautiful life skill.

I think there's another word that fits: reconciliation.

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All of these images are from Garden and Gun, where you can also read a brief article about one photographer's plight to photograph modern-day soldiers using the 19th century technique that captured images of Civil War soldiers. She didn't have the most modern equipment; so maybe I don't need it either. Maybe I need to learn more about light, resourcefulness, resilience, and, well, manipulation.

What would I do with thousands of digital photos of derelict boats, strangers' faces, and dripping 3-tier ice cream cones anyway?

7 comments:

  1. "It has to give a little more; I have to expect a little less." ... Loved this! - as I believe there is an art to be found in the very essence of compromise - AND - in knowing when to compromise & when not to :)

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  2. I need to master this art of compromising, too.
    Loved this post.

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  3. You are such an interesting mix of quirkiness yourself, Girl-Child...so profound and yet so simple....Where did you come from?

    Seriously, though, loved today's and yesterday's posts;)

    Lug, Mug

    P.S. Thinking hard about re-starting my blog with photos of Aunt Nell and HER wonderful quirkiness....

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  4. Yes, Mug you SHOULD re-start your blog. And Aunt Nell would be a MAHVALOUS first post :)

    Yiota and YadahYada, I'm glad to know I'm not alone in this ever-imperfect balancing act!

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  5. Wonderful photos...and I like the ideas and thoughts of sense of place and light...often when I want to write I rarely have a really good idea for a whole story but I often have a yearning to capture in a few words a sense of place or an atmosphere...so many mediums in which we can do this hey? xxx

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  6. I really enjoyed this, and the story about the woman who is re-pourposing the clothing. I always have in mind the 'mood' I want to capture in my photo, but don't always achieve perfection.

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