Thru the lens

I love photography, viewing and shooting. Tis one of me passions. Presently I have two, a 26 year ole Minolta SLR and a one year ole Canon digi. If you had to take one from me, I’ll gladly throw you the Canon. I have nothing against digies but heavens after so many years controlling the shots the digi loses every time.

When I began photographing I shot only in black and white. It is pure. You either capture it or you don’t and a bad shot can not be disguised in black and white. Photographing single items and some landscapes ala Ansel Adams, but mostly I shot architecture. The detail fascinates me. Using shadows one can capture so much more then colour.

Minnie went with me everywhere. She became an appendage often choosing her over the purse and for a woman to say that, o the horror ! She has lost a few parts over the years and has more then her share of scratches. I still want to wade in that stream where one of her knobs came off though it is long lost as the stream surely is.

Beginning with the regular 35m lens I later bought zoooooom and macro lenses. Now what fun that macro is ! Thru trial and error we can be no more then 4” from the subject. Meaning I’d find meself laid flat out on the ground capturing moss and lichen and those funky fungi. Some mushrooms no larger then the eraser end of a pencil caught just so perfectly. 3” high morels hiding in the leaves, earthstars ready to burst, and the colourful witches butter so moist on a rotted tree trunk. I won’t even mention the moss photographed. :)

The macro also allows me to shoot another fave, flora, so close you can almost smell the perfume wafting thru the air. A yearly record of the fuschia species, bugs on blooms and of course, spiders ! There are times I’ll see something, shoot, and when developed say oooooooo, didn’t know that was there. Or one of me prized photos of an Oriental poppy backlit by the sun. The orange so vibrant surrounding stamens of such a blue it amazed me when developed.

Ms Zooooom is also a delight. Walking along the river bank on a misty morn the scene was breathtaking, click, click, click, even able to catch the waves of a retreating beaver made it so much more special. Illumination on this site was taken using it. The views I see on country forays are brought home using its features. No more climbing over hill and dale, well almost.

That is what I enjoy the most, the control of the subject. I want to capture on film what these eyes see thru the lens. Sad to say the digi just doesn’t do it. O it is fine for snapping the new paint colour of the kitchen or the latest white shite to email. But that is it. There is too much automatic for my taste, or could it be I’m pressing the wrong buttons, hhmmm. Til I figger it out it shall remain, just Minnie and Me :)