A simple corner
London, Ontario, February 2007 [Click to embiggen]
I take pictures at restaurants. Strange pictures, often captured in the fleetingly few minutes between the moment we sit down and the time the food is delivered. I don't pose my subjects. I shoot quietly, sometimes focusing on the faces of my family, sometimes on the objects on the table. Inanimate things are easier, because they don't move. When the light is dim and you're not using flash, static compositions tend to have a higher technical success rate.
I thought the edge of the menu made for a simple study in geometry and shadows.
Your turn: What else speaks of simplicity to you?
Carmi, how lovely..."a simple corner"!
ReplyDeleteSimplicity to me, but very special, are small buds about to burst in the spring or my shamrock plant I thought was dead, sending up minute wee green shoots almost unnoticed to my eye in the earth in the pot, or my grandson's smiling eyes. All simple but very special.
Thanks for the reminder, Carmi!
Simple and effective. I am still a bit shy to pull out my camera in public places and my husband would die if I had to in a restaurant LOL. He is still getting used to the fact that I eat with my fork upside down, at first it embarassed the heck out of him. I am not sure what simplicity is to me, I will have to ponder on that, my life is just so complicated at the moment.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments on my blog they mean a lot. We were watching the news this morning and they were showing pictures of the sheets of ice falling off the buildings in Toronto causing them to have to close the roads off. Gotme thinking about you and your trip the other day. Wow now that is some ice storm. Hope you dont freeze too much longer, I know you guys up north and east of us are really getting a hammering.
Keep safe and warm.
Lori
Thanks so much for the reminder about the beauty of simple things. Some of my favorite simple things to photograph are trees, gates, doors, and especially flowers.
ReplyDeleteA special thank you for commenting on my blog!
clean linen...or water..something stark yet beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI love the way you make "simplicity" more interesting than we see with our naked eye.
ReplyDeleteHi Carmi! Thank you for visiting my site by the way of Susan's blog. Coming from a journalist, I'm delighted that you enjoyed my simple thoughts and musings. I just write what is on my mind at the time, that is all.
ReplyDeleteI hope to see you regularly, but it does look like you have many blogs to review from your list! :)
did you get my post on here? Blogger got stroppy and crashed as I posted it ggrrrrr...I wish I had ctrl A'd it!
ReplyDeleteOh My...so very many things, Carmi...But I guess mostly they would be things in my garden or near my garden...And sometimes it's the sky or the leaf on a plant!
ReplyDeleteI just love your photos - I am just a 'snapper' not a photographer, and just take photos for you readers to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI get some really weird looks when I take them - in some places - ordinary ones like shops, and villages, ones that I know my readers from overseas love to see. The way 'ordinary' people live!
I also agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments in your profile - kind deeds, little acts of kindness....
I still have more of your posts to read - so I had better get cracking, and will visit here again soon.
Nice Carmi.
ReplyDeleteEverytime you talk about taking pics in public with your family I cant help but laugh...THATS SO ME. Anyway...we have been down that road. :)
I am all about finding something interesting in the mundane. It makes life so much more fun to live when you can appreicate the things around you. That is why I like this image. It is simple and I love the lines( I feel like I say that a lot)....
Things that I think are simple, at a closer look through my lens...really arent that simple after all. Kind of like your onion yesterday.
nice one
ReplyDeleteThe sincere smile of a passerby...
ReplyDeleteThe moments just after waking, when your eyes are adjusting to the darkness, and your mind to the thoughts that follow...
A head bowed in prayer...
The smell of coffee brewing...
Guess I'd better stop there...the list goes on and on...things that are "everyday occurrences"...simple...but profound.
Bless you today, Carmi.
On people, I like hands.
ReplyDeleteOn "things' I like doorways.
Something everyone or everything has, but they can be so wildly different from on to the next.
I like your corner though, which is a bit of surprise, I was uniquely b a d at geometry.
Nice discovery, your blog. Came here via Annie in Little Rock.
ReplyDeleteSimplicity. At the moment it's hard to think of one thing visually. If I think of a flower, or a hand, it becomes so complex, you know?
But I mean this: your blog. I appreciate the simple human exchange you create in each post. It isn't complicated, but it's profound.
Did I say I like your blog?
I just love imagining both you and Anna from the UK standing in random places and taking all these pictures. You family's must watch with I certain amount of amusement and bewilderment. It's worth it, though, because you both get some great shots!
ReplyDeleteSimplicity...hmmm...
ReplyDeleteThere's something very special about waking up bright and early on a Saturday morning when it is still a bit cold outside. You tip-toe out of bed with your pajamas still on, make a pot of coffee, and settle in for some Club Pogo!
Thank you so much for your kind comment at my blog.
ReplyDeleteSimplicity to me is when I can focus on the basics-my healthy children, that I have a husband that loves me, that I have a warm roof over my head, food on the table, clothes on my back, a van that gets me where I need to go safely. I spend so much time focusing on all the other "stuff" that I forget the simple things. The best things.
Simplicity...a drink of cold water when you are really thirsty and hot. Or, a hot cup of tea at those moments when only tea will suffice (well, I am British!!)
ReplyDeleteI'm getting more confident about taking photos in oublic places. At christmas I photographed the star pattern a coffee shop made on my cappucino with chocolate sprinkles :)
i am so strange ( or brainwashed) that I like this picture, looks like a nice place, too!
ReplyDeleteAll artists are crazy! ;)
ReplyDeletethanks for stopping by my blog! I just had to come see who this carmi is...
ReplyDeleteSo glad to see I am not the only one taking pics of random things in eating establishments! Just yesterday I was at a place called Wildfire, here in Texas. I was really wanting to whip out the camera and take a pic of our dessert. But, I am just building the friendship with this mom, and thought it might be "too soon" to let her see that side of me!
So, click away, and I can live vicariously through you.
thanks for stopping by my blog! I just had to come see who this carmi is...
ReplyDeleteSo glad to see I am not the only one taking pics of random things in eating establishments! Just yesterday I was at a place called Wildfire, here in Texas. I was really wanting to whip out the camera and take a pic of our dessert. But, I am just building the friendship with this mom, and thought it might be "too soon" to let her see that side of me!
So, click away, and I can live vicariously through you.
Hey Carmi, sorry I haven't been around for a few days! Just catching up on the posts I have missed! Great shot today! LOVE how you make such simple things and turn them into something that gets the viewer really thinking! :o)
ReplyDeleteHope that you and your family are all doing well {{{HUGS}}}
I take out a camera in restaurant too. With people I'm not used to, there's momentary confusion as I don't photograph who I'm with. lol. "wha-- oh, I can photograph you too", right after I get this vase.
ReplyDeleteWe're special. Not in the short bus sense I swear. :)