10-2-25

I've joked that I take photographs because I don't have the patience for other forms of art. I can draw, I know how, and if I put my mind to it I can do it quite well, but it takes so long and I can have a photograph in a sixtieth of a second. I could have sixty photographs in a second, if you were to draw abstracts from the nature of the medium. I mean, it's not that simple, but in a way it is.

Yesterday's post is a good contrast to today's. Yesterday I held up a point and shoot digital camera and snapped a photo of an idea I had about "hiding" and "reality" and the essence is there but the photograph is all grainy and noisy and that can have its charm if it's intended but reality is that's just the way things turn out when you're impatient and don't use the right tools.

Today I ventured out with all 30 pounds of gear and tripod on my back and accepted the process. I was patient. This image is a 20 second exposure. That would be 1200 photographs at a sixtieth of a second by my old math. And it's odd what that extended exposure time does to your perception of taking photographs. I thought I had taken a few dozen images but I came home with maybe 10 because of the time invested in each one. I may have to revisit yesterday's image one day if I can be fortunate enough to find that right combination of dim windows and overcast skies and if I have the patience to set up a tripod and take the picture properly this time, if I can find the patience to do so.