Seeing the image

This week's assignment in the online class has me thinking about what aspect of the photographic process inspires me most.  Kat has broken it down into nine categories from the intention to photograph through to receiving feedback.  I have to say that her analytic approach is very helpful to me because I’m not really one to analyze my process. 

Looking closely at it, I think for me the most exciting part is seeing a subject and exploring it with the camera.   Sometimes it doesn’t even matter if I actually take a photo.   

I’m remembering a trip we took to Greece way back in 1987 and seeing fields of stunning red poppies.  At that time I had a little tourist point-and-shoot camera and I wasn’t able to capture the images I saw because they were mostly out of the car window.  One memorable day we rented a motor scooter and I rode behind my husband through the flower-studded hills.  On one turn of the road the most gorgeous meadow was revealed and I managed to get him to stop so I could take a picture.  But my camera had run out of film and I didn’t get the shot.

I still have a memory of that field of poppies and last year when we traveled to Italy in June when the poppies were in bloom I was searching for it again.  I’ve never yet been able to find the image that I saw that day, although it remains in my head (or maybe my heart).  I did find a little painting done by an Italian artist that had the essence of the field and I bought a reproduction of it.   I’ve tried many times to catch the feeling of the poppy meadow and I still continue to be inspired by wild flowers in a field. 

I’m also remembering another time a couple of years ago when were exploring an old walled cemetery at a hacienda in Mexico.  An ancient woman with a long white braid and two beautiful children in traditional colorful clothing were placing bunches of flowers on a grave.  Much as I would have loved to take some photographs of them I just couldn’t interfere in that solemn moment.  Even from a distance it would have been seriously disrespectful.  But I have a memory of the solemnity and the color and the feeling of that brief time in the graveyard.  And I’m still inspired by headstones and flowers.

This photo was taken in the same graveyard and these roses and marigolds hold some of the mood of that memory.

Now that I have a digital camera I try to take it with me everywhere because I never know when I’ll see something that inspires me.  It could be the light through a leaf or the colors in a patch of moss or the sun slanting on the hills.  Lots of times when I’m out walking with the dogs I leave the camera at home because it’s too complicated to stop and take photos when it’s their time to walk and play.  And I still see things that I would like to photograph.  Sometimes I tell myself that I’ll go back and take the picture, but so far I haven’t done so. It seems to be enough just to recognize that I’ve seen the image as I walked by.

Of course I love to take the photograph and I really enjoy reviewing and cropping them and seeing how they look on my blog.  But for me the most inspiring thing about the photographic process is seeing the image and trying to find a way to capture its essence with the camera.   I know I'm in the flow when I find myself lying on the ground trying to get the light coming through the petals of the poppy.