Monday, March 7, 2011

Flavored by History ~Mono Mondays!

"Up Against The Wall"
(1/25 sec.@ F/6.3, ISO 100, 18mm fl, 18-55mm Nikkor kit zoom, pattern metering, dusk light)

Monochromatic. It's almost safe to say that I see equally the scenes before my camera in color and black n' white wherever I go. Perhaps because my first foray into the art world was me at 11 yrs. armed with a pencil and a sketch pad. I sketched everything and anything. The neighbor's dog, my Nana's budgie Mike, a ceramic rooster in the kitchen. Later, it'd be dancers in charcoal, garden scenes in pastels, and a portrait of what I thought I'd look like at 70 yrs old. And is it really a surprise that the guy I fell for in high school who I'd eventually marry, was just as agile with a #2 pencil and could sketch the components of the exterior of the local hydro building, in perspective, in under 20 minutes, from memory... just for fun?

My first photography classes taught me even more about the beauty of B&W, but in film. Developing my own prints taught me to appreciate the entire process of photography, from hearing the film roll click into place inside the camera, to using a light touch and restraint while hand tinting an image I developed myself, with colored inks. Many of which still hang in my house today. There's just history within them.

Which is what I thought about when taking this image two years ago on Regent St. in England. Regent is lined for as far the eye can see with architecture that just seeps out history. I had a few hours to roam the area, and I almost didn't know where to start. I immediately did the tourist thing, getting as much of the street in my shots as possible... but my art brain eventually got hold of my frantic snapshot brain. I started to select angles, details, and better perspectives.This was one of those first "art brain" shots. I've always wanted to share this image. It represents everything I've ever learned I guess.

I haven't revealed this photo before now. It was sitting in an unused folder because it had a rather distracting flaw I initially never spotted in my gleeful photo marathon. At one point it had a rather long flag pole attached to the stone work. It's always bothered me that it was too much work to fix. But over the last couple years, I've learned how to wield the cloning tool just enough that I've managed to rescue the odd photo. And so I was able this past weekend to rescue this shot from becoming "history" and winding up in delete-land. (The first one to guess where the pole was gets my deepest congrats!) And now converted to B&W, it just feels like it contains a certain history... it's own, and mine as well.

Are you letting your story, your history, flavor your endeavors behind the camera? You are anyways, whether you know it or not. Draw the best from it and let it help inspire you.
Thanks for letting me ramble on for another day. Have a good one folks!

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