Inside and outside, it’s the place where peace resides Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness. — Meister Eckhart, Christian mystic Coming across this quote, I noticed that stillness has been and continues to be one of the prominent themes in my photography. When I go out with a camera, the word […]
Stepping away from distraction and divided attention The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. — Jesus (Matthew 6:22) To be whole, authentic, we’re advised to be single-minded—present in the light of Now, present in the light of consciousness. I […]
Beyond taking pictures, make photographs that express emotion Being house-bound, this is an excellent time to develop or exercise your creative “eye.” Modern cameras and smartphones in all price ranges have tremendous technological capability. But when I look around and on the internet, they’re mostly being used to produce images that capture or document what’s in […]
Aesthetically considered, unity is the arrangement or blending of visual elements in a way that’s pleasing. When it works, there’s a feeling of completeness, order, and wholeness. Not one element is out of place or distracting the eye from the central message, feeling or theme. I’m reminded of Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini’s comment to an […]
Texture influences how we experience the world through the sense of touch—directly. The tactile sense is so acute and pervasive, images of texture are enough to elicit an experience vicariously. This makes it an important tool for communication and creative expression. When looked at up close or under a microscope, what makes an object textured […]
The nature of this aesthetic dimension is expressed as a continuum, determined by the number of visual elements within the frame. A photograph of the moon against a black sky with no stars counts as one element. If the light of an airplane is visible, or if there are stars, each is another element. Changes […]
Shadows are a part of most images, yet they’re generally not given much attention. They do, however, contribute greatly to the illusion of three dimensions and “normal” everyday reality by providing evidence of depth and contrast. Used with awareness and purposefulness, they can be a valuable tool as an aesthetic dimension, even turn an ordinary […]
Patterns are pervasive. Visually, through repetition, they set up a rhythm that suggests order. We see them in the most fundamental energy fields within the atom, in the immensity of the cosmos, and the way we function, behave and spend our time. Machines, computers, and time itself reveal patterns in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, […]
A shape is an enclosed space, a two-dimensional form that has length and width. In many instances in photographs, it’s the element that first catches the eye to reveal the subject’s identity. Students learning to draw begin with the fundamental shapes—circles, rectangles, triangles, and ovals. From these, all forms can be drawn by adding […]
As an aesthetic dimension, proportion expresses the relationship of elements within a frame—to each other and to the whole image. Traditionally, paintings and photographs displayed logical proportion where everything within the frame conformed to observation. The part-whole relations made sense, so little to no interpretation was necessary. Then in the early ‘20s, Picasso and Salvador […]
