City - Starved Rock state park State - ILLINOIS, ME BOYS... L-UH-NOY.. Country - United States
About
This photo tells more about my photographic style than a thousand images or ten-thousand words. MM and I was walking about Starved Rock (nice State park in Illinois [L-uh-noy]) and while she stomped ahead… went off and left me, she did, I looked down and saw this. Later in the day I watched as a gent set his camera up and aligned the tripod, adjusted the focus, tweaked his view… and shot a pic of a leaf on a bit of firewood. I kind’a smiled and went inside the lodge. I took a pic of him taking his pic. And I said to MM (Mary Margaret my wife of 31 years) “What he is doing is just wrong. He is taking a photo, but then he picks up the leaf and places it in another spot.” My point being, setting up a shot is not the same as finding an image. We can create a photo opportunity but in my world, finding an ironic shot holds sway. And that brings me to the shot I posted. A dry and dead leaf lying on a clean and sturdy walk-way opposed to a leaf of the same plant, a leaf still vibrant and color-filled lying in the muck and mire. I set up my tripod and made sure the edge of the boardwalk sliced through the composition giving a definite separation of the two thoughts. That is the difference between one who takes pictures and one who takes photographs. The “Picture Taker” manipulates and adjusts: the “photographer” sees and shares. If only one thing is ever culled from my work, let it be this: I have an eye for the ironic.
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