In my garden:  newly emergent Dicentra s. ‘Goldheart’ w/oyster shells.

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Text and photos © 2008, David E. Perry.  All rights reserved. 

If you’ve been paying close attention over the past few weeks, you may be able to suss out which image was made by which camera, but I suspect that this will primarily be the result of my having chosen to compose with such different focal length lenses, simplifying your guesswork a bit.  Had I used a similar length lens on my SLR as the zoomed focal length for any of the three shots on my Point and Shoot, I’m guessing you’d have had a nearly impossible task telling the two apart, even printed in a glossy magazine.  At 72 ppi screen resolution on your computer monitor, I dare say you couldn’t reliably tell.  Which is kinda my point in doing all this.  Our compact digital cameras these days are so very good, they will prove in most cases, far better at what they do than we are at our part of the equation. 

Our cameras are seldom the reason our pictures aren’t better at showing and telling, at evoking and inspiring.

We are.

Which really is pretty good news when you stop to think about it, because it takes some of the pressure off to try to buy our way into better photographs, or to simply wish we could afford to.  There is for most of us immense room for growth and improvements in picture quality without spending even a dime more than we already have invested in our gear.  Wanting a new toy is one thing, but actually believing we need one before we can make poetic pictures; that’s something else.

Truth is, simply throwing more money at most problems in life won’t solve them.  But in this case, playing more earnestly will.  Using our imaginations.  Giving ourselves time, first to see, then to craft and compose, and finally to further explore the images we’ve made within a program like Photoshop.  Now there’s a box of crayons that will enlarge the universe of possibilities for a dollar.  (OK, it costs a little more than that.)


Coming next:  some basic guidelines for composition . . .and a heartfelt entreaty to ignore everything I say.

Dicentra spectalilis ‘Alba’ is just days from popping out its longlasting  ‘Bleeding Hearts’  flower show

Rheum palmatum, ornamental rhubarb pushes its new growth upward through leaf mulch for Spring