4.0 Photography

PHOTOGRAPHY

While I have quite a collection of photographs and one never knows where to start or end, let me begin with a picture of some Foxtails I had posted on Facebook and my responses to some comments and questions.. This particular picture was taken in Lancaster County, home of the Amish.

The first time I noticed glowing Foxtails as a photograph-able phenomenon was when I noticed them on the side of the 301 hwy en-route to Leonardtown one evening, in Maryland, in 1998 (left); I parked the car by the roadside, hurried back, lay down with my legs almost into the road, risking amputation by passing cars and took numerous shots from a low angle. Those were the "slide film days" when proper exposure was pretty much hit and miss and there was a three week wait time to see how it came out!

There is a reflectivity differential between the hairs and the "base", hence this effect when lit from a low angle..Which is just a lot of verbiage for "I have often noticed this with foxtails, and especially look out for this effect at the time of the setting or rising sun"! The thing is, the lighting phenomenon only lasts about 10 or fifteen minutes..

Here is another picture of glowing Foxtails I took during the Fall, in Shenandoah Valley, a few years ago:

Anyone can buy a camera and make quite nice pictures; technology has taken care of most of the technical constraints of capturing a scene. But, just as in the days of painting, lots of people painted, but the only ones that stood out - The Van Goghs, Rembrandts et al had that special "something" - a sense of proportion (Van Gogh), color (Van Gogh) that made them stand out from others. Some of this is technical mastery , but a lot has to do with the "soul". I am trying to find  that "soul" in Photography that no one else can possess.. Every time I see others' pictures that exceed mine in quality and "soul", I am discouraged. I am not sure whether I will ever achieve that level of expression.. I plod along and take pictures that, hopefully, have meaning within, beyond captions and descriptions.

Note: all pictures are copyright J Devasundaram. Do not use without permission and attribution