In Your Own Backyard
Tin Woodsman: What have you learned Dorothy?
Dorothy: Well, I – I think that it – it wasn’t enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em – and it’s that – if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t go looking any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right? -From “The Wizard of Oz“
Dorothy’s adventures in the Land of Oz came from a vivid imagination, boredom, and discontent that often mirrors our own. We are always looking for something to spice up our lives, give us an adventure or two; the grass is always greener on the other side, so off we go in search of something bigger or better, more satisfying and rewarding.
As photographers, we are no different. Camera bag and paraphernalia in hand, we load up our vehicles, fill them with gas, and off we go, sometimes long distances, to capture that one photo that might be more satisfying and rewarding [personally or financially] than what we have already seen. I have been just as guilty in the past, and probably will be just as guilty sometime in the future. But, like Dorothy, I have come to realize that many of my great photos [well, great to me, anyway] have been shot in my own back yard, so to speak, most within five to ten miles of my driveway. Oh, certainly they have not been the majesty of the Rockies, or the icy cold of Alaska’s glaciers or the humid banana groves of Costa Rico.
I no longer have the funds or the opportunities to travel to those kinds places so I am really glad that I was able to get some nice photos on those travels. However, now that I am limited, I am finding that I am rediscovering that thing that I had “lost” – the sights and scenes that are in my own “back yard”. Like many that are only able to afford “stay-cations”, I am discovering the personality of the towns around where I live as well as the town that I live in not to mention some hidden “gems”‘.
Last week I “discovered” one of those gems in Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center for “injured, sick, or orphaned birds of all types” in Hutchins, Texas when I transported a bird to them from the Tri-City Animal Shelter [where I volunteer whenever I can] here in Cedar Hill. I did not have my camera with me at the time but I did ask about being able to come back and take photos of some of the birds and was told that it would be fine. I am looking forward to going out there sometime in the near future [when it is NOT so hot] and taking some photos, especially of the peacocks that are just roaming around.
Sometimes staying in your own back yard and discovering the hidden gems can be as rewarding as traveling across and around the country or even out of the country. Yes, definitely, getting the chance to travel to “exotic” places is rewarding, and gives a lifetime of memories, but even though you think you know all about where you live, oft times there is more to be discovered, more to be found.
All we have to do is look.
Posted in Perspectives, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
Historical Photography
I’m not a young’un by any means, but I remember sitting in some of my ancestors’ parlors as I was growing up looking at black and white photographs of people I didn’t know who were long dead, listening to the chatter about this person or that and who they married and their kids, where they lived and went to church, and on and on. When I was a kid, I just found the photos interesting, but the historical value of the genealogy went in one ear and out the other, much to my regret many years later. Many of those photos are long lost to me; distant relatives may have them or they may have been lost to an estate sale, a garage sale, fire or other natural disaster. I still have some that were passed down to me, but again, the people on the pages of the albums I have stare back at me emptily and I have no clue who they are, where they were photographed, or when.
But, what is mostly missing in all of these photos are events. Not just in those people’s lives, but things that went on around them. Missing are the babies, the christenings, the family gatherings, the church socials. Missing are the weddings, the deaths, the elderly, school classes and graduations. Gone are photos of their houses and farms, their gardens and crops and animals. The men behind the plows being dragged through the dirt by mules. The rainstorms and floods, the snow storms and blizzards, or fields blossoming on a Spring or Summer day. The rides on trains, or early 20th Century cars. No towns with grocery stores or fruit and vegetable stands, gas stations. Missing, too, are the signs of poverty or wealth.
I am sure that there are people with ancestral photo albums that have these things documented, and I know that photojournalists have archives filled with these kinds of photos, as well as having published thousands of books. But, there are far more of us that have dusty albums with black and white photos of nameless men and women and children that are missing these kinds of photos.
Today, however, in the digital information age we are able to inexpensively capture the “times of our lives” and document the events around us. We have the ability to share the photos we take with millions around the world, or family across the country. We are able to publish inexpensive books and caption the photos so that everyone will know who is in the photo and what is going on. And scrapbookers create beautifully themed albums that can be handed down from one generation to the next.
We should remember, though, to not ignore the events that are all around us outside of our immediate lives. We need to move outside the doors of our personal lives and see those we work with, go to church with, visit with and grow old around; our towns and cities that change every day, along with the weather and the landscape. We should not forget to pick up our cameras and take photos of more than just our loved ones or the sunset or flowers; we all want to capture that “magical” moment that is worth a thousand words or a thousand dollars, but that is not all that our lives are about. Even I am guilty of forgetting that. Our cameras, digital, film and video, are valuable tools for recording our lives, our histories, and our demise for the generations to come. We just need to look beyond our digital lenses and and record those events that shape our lives and the lives of those around us.
We are, in essence, the digital historians and documentarians for our descendants. We should never overlook an opportunity to record an historical event – good, bad, or ugly. Someone, many years beyond our lives, will gladly thank us for that photo of Aunt Mary in her Hallowe’en costume when she was eight, or Grandfather Bob playing football in high school, but labeled and identified; or for the photos of the cars buried up to their roofs in the great snowstorm of 2011. Take it, print it, label it, record it forever. Not for posterity, not for personal satisfaction, but for history.
Posted in Perspectives, Reflections by Jason with no comments yet.
The View from a Shoe
We have a small dog. Well, relatively small, anyway. She’s a Yorkie, but I would not call her a “teacup” Yorkie, or even a toy Yorkie. She’s just small. Bailey stands not quite 6″ tall at the shoulder. When she hasn’t had a haircut in a while, she would remind you of an Ewok. We once took her to a Texas Bluebonnet festival, carrying her in a pouch, and one of the vendors even said, “Look! It’s an ewok!”
Bailey is cute, sweet and adorable; the kind of dog you would love to follow around with a camera and take a ton of photos of. The only problem is, Bailey sees a camera and looks the other direction or turns away from the camera completely. Matters not if you move, too, to try to see her face, she will turn yet again. You don’t even have to have the camera up to your face, as long as she sees it in your hand, regardless of what the camera looks like [she just knows a camera by instinct] she is going to make sure you don’t get a photo of her, especially if she has to look up. Hey, it’s a LONG way to look up from her height.
One day, however, I decided I wanted to take some photos of her face, so out into the back yard we went, just us two. At first I sat down in the grass, but I didn’t like the angle, so I got down on my stomach and, amazingly, got a lot of good photos of Bailey’s face in both color and black and white without her looking away or moving.
Not long afterward my wife and I took a trip to the original Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant in Stephenville, Texas. Talk about a neat place to visit! Leading in to their museum on the second floor is this gorgeous wood flooring, which is unfortunately not very level, but had a nice gloss finish on it. I stood looking at that and then put my camera on the floor and set the timer. As far as I was concerned, it was a terrific photo, and from a viewpoint that most don’t think about. Thus, my “shoe view” photo was born.
Photos from foot level. I don’t take photos from this angle very often, but it is a view that is often over looked. I don’t mean photos that are taken from bending over and pressing the shutter button, but photos literally from ground level where you put the camera on the ground. Depending on the digital camera make, however, you may or may not be able to look through the view finder or the view screen to see what you’re taking a photo of, which is somewhat the beauty of shoe views. You never know exactly what you might catch in the shot.
So, remember, if you have little dogs, crawling babies, or just want to experiment, don’t forget the view from your shoe.
Shoe View Pumpkins
In Honor Lies Victory
Posted in Perspectives by Jason with no comments yet.