How To See.

I photograph to see what the world looks like photographed. Garry Winogrand

There is a great little book called ‘How To See’, written by Thich Nhat Nanh. It centres around the art of mindfulness. Eric Kim has also written an article called ‘Learn to See’. I’ve always thought this concept was a little daft. We all have eyes and we use them all the time. Recently I feel that I’ve been learning to see once again. Maybe this is influenced by my growing interest in meditation, or maybe it is because I am finding myself in an unfamiliar environment.

Landscape Photography

This is meant to be a street and travel photography blog. I’m soon going to have to add landscape photography to my working title. But seriously, that’s all there is near my current home in New Zealand! I’m finding my feet here. Fortunately for my health, landscape photography still requires a lot of walking with the positive flip side of there being healthier air than in the cities! With Street Photography I know where I stand, but now my creativity is being challenged. Here are two recent photos I am fairly happy with.

The Negatives

I’m not terribly happy with how the sea looks in either of these photos. Moving on, I will try and shoot at a slower shutter speed, and set the camera up on a tripod. This should make the sea a little smoother and less noisy. I do like the sky, so maybe I need to experiment with blending multiple exposures of the same image. The next issue is the time of day. I love early mornings, but at the moment I’m working online till late in the evenings. I lose my teaching job very soon, but one positive spin on this financial setback will be more time to shoot in the mornings!

The Positives

With respect to landscape photography, I have yet to develop a ‘style’ of my own. However, the current method I am playing with involves using the end of the zoom, and this has the effect of compressing the layers together, and making a flat looking image. Landscape photography is much more demanding on post production, and my Photoshop subscription is starting to earn its keep!

Nothing But flowers

At the moment the beach is brimming with flowers. I’m really trying to avoid becoming a flower photographer, but the pull is there. Help me someone – I need to get to a city soon! One moment I’m enjoying a brisk walk out in the open, and the next I’m on my belly flower arranging. However, I am really quite pleased with the photo below. I wish that I had carried out a little gardening and removed the pine needles that are in the middle of the leaves.

The Future’s Uncertain

There is no doubt about it, this hippy dippy flower and landscape work may come to an end. At some point a new job will (hopefully) start and I will be heading to one of New Zealand’s bubbling cities. The most likely location for my next adventure will be Auckland, Christchurch, or Wellington. On the flip side, China is now opening up now they have Covid under control. In the meantime, I will adjust my photography to what is around me, and once again, ‘learn to see’… Right, I’m off to crawl in the grass whilst looking for flowers!

Keep Clicking, Chris

Support Pagespics, and buy me a coffee.