photography

The majesty of sunsets and sunrises is amazing. The palette of reds, oranges, and yellows are both short-lived and beautiful. If you look on Instagram, the number of pictures assigned to the sunset hashtag alone sits at about 187 million as of this publishing date. However, many sunset pictures can start to get a "same-y" look. While most objects are geographically locked in or are otherwise elusive to most of the world's population, sunsets are not.

Silhouettes are a fun concept to dig into because you can achieve so much with this constraint. You can capture sunsets in a more meaningful way, you can highlight lighting phenomenon, or you can feature the lines of your subject. One of the funny things about artistic constraints is that they actually fuel creativity. It sounds counter-intuitive, but the limits force you to think outside of the box. I enjoy shooting silhouettes because it forces me to focus on the geometry of the object and how it relates to the background of the composition.

A common thread among our observations of art is the inevitable response, “I wish I could do that” (Occasionally, “even I could do that” comes up, but that is a different discussion entirely). The answer invariably is, “You can”. However, the question then becomes, how much time are you willing to devote to your craft in order to be able to do so? Music, painting, writing, and photography are all crafts that need to be practiced in order to improve. Works by the great masters may seem inhuman and nearly divine, but they are done by those that honed their skills to a high level.

Autumn, or Fall, is a particularly nostalgic time of year. The earthy scent of leaves, the bright primary colors in the trees, cool brisk mornings, and the chittering of squirrels meticulously hiding away food stores for later. Autumn invigorates our senses and we become keenly aware that time as a whole seems shorter now. Despite seeming to have less time, we have more of everything else. Crops ripen and an absolute bounty of goods become available for us to eat and enjoy.

This photograph is a case of getting something better than what I wanted.

I was in Jamaica visiting my sister, and I knew this was rare travel and photo opportunity for me. I specifically got my camera well in advance for this trip. I spent months practicing with the camera, and photography in general, so I could really knock this trip out of the park, photographically.

I didn’t get the exact shot I had in mind, but instead I got something far more dramatic and appealing.