I have no idea whether this blog will ever be read...or whether I'll be diligent enough to keep up with it but if I never try, I'll never know so here goes...
The blog title came from a quote I read when I first took up photography. Sadly I can't remember who said it but if I ever come across it again I'll post a credit.
"
I think a photography class should be a requirement in all educational programs because it makes you see the world rather than just look at it. " [sic]
That's certainly been my experience. Since I took up photography in October 2007 I've learned to see...properly.
I forget all the reasons I started taking photos seriously, rather than just snapshots. I suspect partly it's the fact that I'm a frustrated artist at heart. I love art...any art...I'm an art tart in fact. It may also relate to the fact that I spend my working days dealing with vision and vision problems. There's nothing like spending your time working with those whose vision is severely compromised for making you appreciate that wonderful sunrise or the look on your child's face when he holds a sparkler for the first time, or the glorious autumn foliage on your drive to work.
Vision, or the lack of it, is my bread and butter. I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about vision and vision problems. Much of vision is about perception. Our eyes don't work in isolation, we filter what we see through our hearts and minds.
Seeing is believing is a falsehood...many of my patients know it and acknowledge it and many others know it but are in denial. The eyes and mind play tricks.
The camera never lies is another falsehood. A photograph is the translation of what the photographer sees with his eyes, filtered through his heart, his mind and his camera. Perhaps it was inevitable then that one day photography and I would find each other.
Not that I'm a fabulous photographer or anything (I wish I was). No, the relationship I have with photography is a fledgling one but it feels right...like when you meet 'the one'. My husband was 'the one'. I knew I'd marry him from the first day I met him. I don't know how I knew, and I certainly didn't tell him (he'd have run a mile!) but I did 'know'. We were a perfect fit and that was that.
When I picked up my SLR for the first time I had that same sense of understanding...that the camera and I 'fitted'. My husband and I have been together for 23 years now. I've learned a lot about him and understand his excellent qualities, his strengths, his quirks and his failings. My SLR and I are still in the heady first stages of our relationship and I'm on a very steep learning curve. But somehow I know we're in it for the long haul.
If you'd like to see where exactly I am on this learning curve you can see my photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debs1968/
