Photo:Engage

  “ To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. ”  - Edward Weston      This image is the last of three making up my first triptych. In case you're still wondering what a triptych is, allow me to explain. Historically, it is a type of art composed of three related pieces, usually panel paintings, which were hinged together such that they could fold or be allowed to stand upright on their own, often for use at the altars of churches in the Middle Ages. The middle panel was generally the largest, although today that's not necessarily the case.      A modern triptych can mean anything composed of three parts, but in my case, it's three photographs that are related to each other and that together tell a story. The first part of this triptych is an image I called   Vertigo . The second is called Residuum . Here, then is photograph number three of my first t...

Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument. ”  - Eve Arnold      My friend Brian died at home on Wednesday, September 1, 2021 surrounded by his family and his two dogs as his sister sang to him while she and their mother held his hands. Born on the same day as my father a year before I was, Brian and I served together in the Navy on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower back in the early nineties. He was a fun-loving guy with a wicked sense of humor who enjoyed his work and I’ll remember him as a shipmate forever.     Only two years ago, Brian had a kidney removed and began treatment for the cancer at his liver that eventually took him, but not without a fight. He battled with the disease for two grueling years. Like so many cancer patients, his treatment plan had many ups and...

  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera. ”  - Dorothea Lange     I get so discouraged sometimes from the pervasive divisiveness in our society. People so often seem to look at other people as obstacles...      Other cars going too slowly, too many others on the sidewalk or in the stores, wearing masks to slow the spread of the pandemic virus (the virus is real) or not wearing masks because of personal freedom (it's a conspiracy), vaccinations or no vaccinations, too much traffic, not enough workers, impatience at the restaurant or in line at the gas station or when waiting for a government service. Not to mention how everything is political nowadays. The list of ways other people bother us is seemingly endless. And yet, as I wrote in my post on July 24, 2021...      Other people aren’t problems; they’re fellow people with their own t...

  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary objects so you can transform it by photographing it. ”  - Morley Baer     Clues. I'm always looking for clues, the little details that reveal the bigger picture. What can I find that shows me that something happened where I'm standing? Animal tracks, wind-bent tree trunks, matted grasses, and repeated patterns in the sand are all different clues to what an area is all about, what lives there, and what might happen next. I love this type of exploration and how it makes my photography such a personal, memorable experience. As I wrote in my post on May 8, 2021...           As our beautiful rotating Earth travels along it elliptical orbit, the sun and the moon exert their varying gravity on our planet. This celestial ballet raises and lowers the water level of our seas and oceans. In tur...

  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Only photograph what you love. ”  - Tim Walker      For whatever reason, this was my worst performing social media post so far. Perhaps the image was weak. Although I love this view of wild beach grasses glowing with golden hour sunlight, maybe it just didn't resonate with my audience. Personally, I am tired of seeing the same basic photograph of the beach at sunrise or sunset. They're beautiful, of course, and some photographers capture them better than others, but the look is repeated ad nauseum. I am trying to move my audience to something fresher... something unexpected. And perhaps by doing so, I am falling prey to my own pride.     Because maybe my images just aren't what my audience wants to see, good intentions and good writing be damned. Or maybe the photography I'm currently producing isn't that good, no matter what I think. The new editor of Sidetracked ma...

  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ The camera has always been a guide, and it's allowed me to see things and focus on things that maybe an average person wouldn't even notice. ”  - Don Chadwick      What peculiar names we give to places! Who could imagine a head or a gut being terms for an area of water? How can so many rivers and creeks in the Northeast end with the malevolent sounding kill ? (Hint: There's nothing violent to worry about; it's from the Dutch colonists who originally explored there.) Did you know an inlet is also known as an arm of the sea ? Some of these terms are for similar types of water features but depend upon their size... for instance, “you can step over a brook , jump over a creek , wade across a stream and swim across a river " as an old saying goes.      Where I grew up, a creek was actually called a crick , at least by my mom. In Scotland, a large stream is a burn , thu...

  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Don't shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like. ”  - David Alan Harvey      My friend David Benton remarked, " This has your unique stamp of composition. No one else would have seen that." This post blew up compared to most of mine. I received more than 500 likes on one Facebook group (my first photograph ever to do so) and hundreds more in my other social media and what's even better are the many comments where people described how much they too enjoyed the blessings of the bays.      Lower Delaware is lucky to have Indian River Bay and Rehoboth Bay, as are the many animals and plants that live in these remarkable estuaries. People also commented how they worried that the bays may become ruined from overdevelopment and their concerns are valid; many new homes and condos are being built on the bay shore as people flock to the area seeking waterfront living....