My pictures of Niagara Falls made me start thinking about photography as an art. They’re fine pictures, but they’re “stock.” You can go online and find the same pictures on other websites, not because the contributors all stole from each other, but simply because Niagara Falls looks much the same from day to day and millions of tourists take pictures of it every year.
If you just want a record of what you see, then everyday tourist shots will do. If you want something more from your pictures, then you need to give them “soul”—that ineffable quality that makes a thing alive and unique. So how does one add soul to a picture? I’m no expert, but I’m guessing that part of it has to do with using interesting angles and with capturing elements that are different from day to day (or even minute to minute).
I don’t know how far I’ll go with my photographic efforts. Mostly I use photography to keep my brain busy while my body exercises, but some of the resulting pictures give me artistic satisfaction. I’m going to have to think more about how I can make my photographs special.
In the meantime, I offer you a few more pictures from recent walks.
Land snails are small and hard to see, but once I learned to spot them, I found them all over the place.
I think weeds can be beautiful. I would have retaken this picture to sharpen the focus, but a certain someone (who shall remain nameless) chopped the plant down the very next day. Zai jian, pretty weed!
The official name of this plant is Indian Pipe, but I call it Ghost Flower. Like a ghost, it’s white and creepy-looking, not to mention hard to capture on film.