Vinod asked me to expound on my art; a task I have to confess I find terribly difficult to do. I balk at even calling it art, actually. So questions like “why” somewhat irk me. I could be a real smart ass and say – “because it was there” but that doesn’t help you any.
I was in India last November and as I waited for my then fiancee to get her clothes stiched by a tailor, I walked around the gardens and found these exotic leaves poking into the afternoon sky. I got a simple reading off of the leaves and by that I mean I exposed only for the leaves and assumed the sky which was pretty darn bright would go to white light. Machines don’t disappoint. Sure enough the sky went white and the leaves punched through.
I am reading a book by Robert Adams called Beauty in Photography: Essays In Defense of Traditional Values. In it, Adams states one way “beauty” can be defined in photography is by the form it takes. I think I must subliminally subscribe to this point of view. Do all photographers have their brains wired this way? I can’t really say for sure.
What I liked, more than the photograph, was the actual experience of photographing the leaves. Process over results. I think that’s really the key to just about anything in life. Enjoy what you are doing and you will end up doing it well. It’s a mantra I keep repeating to myself for it is so easy to forget. And didn’t the Bhagwad Gita say something similar? And therein lies my desi hook to this week’s photograph submission. Enjoy!
You will have to trust me when I say that there was very little manipulation to this image. Just a bit of sharpening in Photoshop, but otherwise the image is as-is. I really don’t like fussing about or tweaking my images; even more so when people are in my frame.
