Desolate
London, ON, October 2007
Photography is as much about what isn't in the frame as what is. When I was a child, I'd make a rectangle with my fingers and thumbs, then look around through the hastily created aperture. I was too young for a camera, but I remember feeling gleeful when I realized I could block out things I didn't want to see.
Fast forward to today and, despite the relative sophistication of my adult's tools - a dSLR instead of chubby fingers - I'm doing pretty much the same thing. I remove extraneous details through selective composition, placing scenes in whatever context I wish.
Some days, I'd like to be able to control the real world as completely as I do the two-dimensional one I first began defining with my fingers so many years ago.
Your turn: So what's this scene saying to you? (I'll share full background on the image this time next week. In the meantime, feel free to ruminate.)
I'm seeing this taken from high up in the sky. the people are so small you can barely see them and those boulders are mountainous. What a harsh world.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a plastered wall to me.
ReplyDeletebtw, found your link on another blog I read. I'll be back for sure.
It looks like a wall, or some sort of gravel road. Looks like a typical desolate place for London, Ontario.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding! :-) I'm a fellow Canadian too. I'm from Toronto, living in California.
I saw this twice.
ReplyDeleteThe first time, I saw blacktop or asphalt - a piece of a road to somewhere or from somewhere. I imagined what it might look like to a tiny insect and it became a playground for hide-and-seek or a landscape for re-enacting some grand battle from the archives of insect history.
The second time I let my eyes blur a little and it became a the surface of a chocolate cookie. (I was a bit troubled, however, by that stringy bit at the top right corner. What sort of chocolate is stringy?)
i think it is a wall...a gray outside wall of a store or mall or something.
ReplyDeletekerith
http://momdumchronicles.blogspot.com
looks like ash covered pebbles....which reminded me, "Dang, I need to dust my wooden blinds or soon they will look like this!"
ReplyDeleteWhat does this say to me: there are such intricacies and interesting idiosyncracies in what we often think as the everyday and mundane - you never know what you may discover if you stop and take a new perspective - you may just give yourself a new perception and understand of things you previously considered simple or inconsequential.
ReplyDeleteMy Virgo moon would also like to add - that there is beauty and intrigue in the details ...
My guess is an up close river bed or something similar - with lots of dry mud on the top? Though I'm also drawn to the idea that its a chocolate crackle (not sure again about the stringy bit at the top!)
I agree. That is why I so love the zoom feature of a camera, and adore close up shots. It's as if the photographer is saying, "I'm calling your attention to this detail I noticed, isn't it wonderful?" And without the photographer to call our attention to it, we might otherwise miss it. I missed getting a comment from you last night on the Meet N' Greet game. I hope all is well.
ReplyDeleteMichele sent me.
Reminds me of a late night walk and suddenly I tripped. I spent a lot of time looking very carefully at the gravel after that whenever I walked by. That gravel caused me a lot of pain. The owners REALLY need to fix their driveway craters.
ReplyDeleteOh...and if I forgot to say, Michele sent me. :-)
ReplyDeleteLove this shot :) My guess is asphalt.
ReplyDeleteThat says "You want 100 miles of this on a moderately twisty road, with a beautiful, sunshine filled day and time to just ride, ride, ride..."
ReplyDeleteWell, if its asphalt, that is. If it's cookie, I don't think I want to ride on 100 miles of that... ;)
That looks like "popcorn" ceiling that's been pained over.
ReplyDeleteIt says "asphalt" to me.....LOL
ReplyDeleteI think it is a guyish picture...I know that doesn't make sense but it just seems very masculine to me.
ReplyDeleteMichele sent me to enjoy your great photography tonight!
I agree. Wouldn't it be nice if we could crop life?
ReplyDeletePlayground surface?
Hello, Carmi, Michele sent me to say that the photo reminds me of the mud and gravel driveway we used to have in Tennessee...everytime it rained the gravel ould slink into the mud and become covered by it.
ReplyDeleteA muddy gravel walkway, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteMine is under alot of snow-
Time to clean the fishtank!
I haven't done the kitty-litter box today yet...
I like Kerith's answer....an outside wall on a store.
ReplyDeleteThis is telling me I need to put a coating on my driveway.
ReplyDeleteMSM(Michele sent me)
Hmmmm...life isn't a smooth path. It's filled with bumps, but that's part of the challenge. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's what enjoy about photography - the fact that you can select the scene you want to view. I used to do that thing with my fingers too. Still do sometimes, since I don't have my camera yet. You probably know this, but many times an ok picture can become really special with the right cropping.
ReplyDeleteI've got a nice series of photos from my trip in Oz that I'll be posting tonight and on every Sunday for the next few weeks.
As for the storm... I'll be doing a phone order at a local grocery store.