Picture Notes

This is not a commissioned photograph of a spider web covered with dew.

I worked as a commercial photographer in Florida for about 20 years and was commissioned to make photographs for advertising. Much of the photography I was asked to do was over thought and deliberate. Sometimes it was difficult but it also had rewards so it was a good way to make a living, but it made the photography kind of mechanical - “just a money game.” People who work in the business need to know the end of the story, the reaction to the photograph in the market, and I rarely got to see this.

The reason I bring this up is because I continue to look for a new direction to take the photography. There is a certain cynical attitude left over from my time as a commercial photographer that limits what I will show here. That’s why there aren’t many photographs of people on this blog, just so you know.

I’ve put a movie of fall clouds on the portfolio page.

Here’s a big fat blueberry that reminds me of summer in Maine.

I had a funny thing happen to me a few weeks ago that I’m still thinking about. I had moved in closer to study a few pills that I had put into a glass and I looked long enough to see the unexpected. Sometimes looking closely at something can be a remarkable experience, other times everything is just as it should be, it’s expected. There are lots of metaphors here but I’m going to leave them alone. Some things just don’t stand up to close scrutiny, to macro photography. I try to remind myself to always look for and expect to find dust and to not look if I don’t want to see the dirt, there is always dirt.

Every once in a while I find myself saying things that I hadn’t planned to say and didn’t think through completely. These unexpected “truths” have caused me large amounts of pain later and I always regret saying them even though I can never take them back. I wish I could find a way to fix all my mistakes.