Andrew, You talk of the Devil in the Details. Say you were photographing mud. Would you just photograph a field of plain brown mud, or would you find some with some leaves lying atop the mud? Would you find some with some tracks and trails through it? I don't think you would do just plain mud. As I said initially what you need to find is the hidden essence that is within even the most average of scenes. Something is there, you need to find it. So in the sense of documenting the mundane, perhaps you might be, but you would still be editing or picking just the right image to capture what you are calling mundane rather than the blandness or mediocrity of the overall. Certainly if the photo of the average is part of a larger matrix it has a place, but how often is larger matrix presented in a report, or a photography show, or other venue? The mundane or average may be present, but I don't thin that is the essence or the soul of a place. I would still argue that is what you should be trying to capture or document as opposed to the averageness of the site. we don't go out and measure the average trees on a site, but the tall one. We don't go out and climb the small trees, but the exceptional ones. Why when photographically documenting a site should we focus on the average more than in passing?
Ed “To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again” - Ralph Waldo Emerson ----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Joslin To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 4:27 PM Subject: [ENTS] Re: Photo Documentation of Forest Sites - Back to Bob The devil is in the details, photograph the mud, the leaf, and the massive trunk, do your best to bring it all in with images that look at the beautiful and the "mundane". The mundane is the matrix and medium that supports the exceptional, it all needs to be there to tell the story of a particular place. -AJ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
