Back in May of 1971, Karen Carpenter sang, "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down." But, should they...really? I am honestly not so sure.
You see, rainy days, even if they do fall on a Monday, present a gift of an opportunity to photographers. The mist, the moodiness, the muted tones...it's a photographer's playground! And, yes, it does present its problems--like keeping your subject(s) and your equipment dry. But, oh, the scenes that we can capture! Especially if the subjects happen to be a couple of soaked-to-the-skin kids who are frolicking in a downpour, or your faithful dog, enjoying a good romp in a mud puddle. A street scene, a couple walking along sharing an umbrella, the effects of the wind in the trees. Portraiture, street photography, pet portraits, daily life... the possibilities are endless! Rainy days are also a good time to capture abstract scenes, like the photo above. Just a non-descript doorway in a back alley in town. Any other day, with the sun shining, I would have passed it by, never giving it a second look. But on that rainy afternoon, as I sat in my car, listening to the radio and waiting for someone, I noticed it, and it spoke to me. The blues, the grays, the browns...they danced upon my windshield with abandon, changing shape and place with each raindrop, beckoning me to take the shot. The rain, then, was my muse, making it possible to see something ordinary in a completely different light. I challenge you. Next time you are find yourself faced with a rainy day, look around. Look closely. Take in the entire scene. Be mindful; notice things. What you see--and how you see it--may surprise you!
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Once a professor of English at a Central Florida college and an avid outside-the-box thinker, I was taken quite by surprise by a growing love of photography - the next step in my creative journey. And, for those of us who are more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, and for whom the world holds such beauty if only viewed from a different perspective, the taking of photographs became, for me, a way of journaling life and the world that surrounds it. My work, then, will become my legacy; what I leave behind for my children and grandchildren. My way of communicating to them who I am at my very core and how I have viewed the world.
As for my “style”, I am eclectic, my work spanning a broad range of moods, intensities, and technical aspects, preferring color saturation to black and white. The mood of my work can best be described as “earthy” and “impressionistic”. Taking a cue from the Old Masters of both Impressionism and post-Impressionism, I strive to lift the gray veil that covers our eyes and provide a brief glimpse beyond, a view of how rich life is meant to be. |
AuthorI'm just a Florida girl in a Tennessee world, making the most out of this journey we call life. And, to document each step along the way, I've chosen a Nikon and a keyboard. Fitting, really, to combine my love of words with the visual embellishment that photographs lend. A picture is, as they say, worth a thousand words. ArchivesCategories |