Autumn's Here*

I knew the moment I saw these trees that it would be a beautiful photo.

Actually, I knew before I left the house that there would be beautiful photos to be taken. It was just one of those stunningly beautiful autumn days.

Yvonne asked me one of the harder questions to answer the other week. (Yes, I've been saving the hard ones, waiting for an answer to magically pop into my brain) She said she'd "I'd love a post on your approach to photography." And I've been thinking about it and trying to figure out what exactly my approach to photography *is* ever since.

Y,
Thanks for asking, because it did make me think, but I'm still not entirely sure what to say, but here goes. . .

I take my camera out with me when I head out on a sunny day or to an event or something. (I also take it to family get togethers, but those photos don't get flickred.) And then I start looking.

Sometimes I look for who stands out and what stands out. Sometimes, if I'm in a crowd, I just look for people who are interesting. Bright colours, situations, stuff like that.

If I'm not around people and am taking a picture of things, I don't really know, I just sort of see what it'll look like as a picture and try to frame it that way.

I think for me it's a matter of looking and observing and then trying to recapture what I see on film. (I guess that should be "film" as I haven't brought out my film SLR in years) Sometimes I can't get it and I get frustrated.

I play around with angles and positions when I remember to, but certainly when I'm in a crowd, I'm often too shy for that.

I think my favourite thing about a digital camera is that it lets me take a ton of photos and it lets me see. That way, I can see if I got something I like and I can also take a bunch and find the "best" later.

There's still a part of me that thinks that some of the pictures I took pre-digital were better, but I'm not sure on that one.

Having a camera that loves bright, sunny days also helps.

I think I just love it. And I think my brain sees in pictures.

I do try to think of where things are in the frame and all that kind of stuff, and when I remember, I pay attention to the background and all that jazz.

So I don't know that I really have an approach to photography other than "take pictures".

Look for pictures, take them, delete the bad ones, enjoy it.

And I think a lot of times, I know that the picture is going to remind me of something.

Maybe it reminds me the colour the sky was that particular evening, or how much fun that awesome day I got off of work because of the snow was, or what it was like to be gripping to a relationship that wasn't working, or maybe it reminds me of every single moment of a trip I've always wanted to take. I think my approach is to take the camera with me when there are likely to be lots of opportunities to take photos and to get out and take photos when opportunities present themselves.

Then, once I'm out there, I try to see the picture or the story or the image and then I take it and take it and take it and hope that at some point in there I do.

And when I do?

It makes me happy.

Not sure how enlightening that was Y, but I hope, somehow, it helped,
Victoria

*As an Autumn bonus because I love you:



Hawksley Workman - Autumn's Here (live)