I’m entering a couple of photos for the Life Images magazine from Somerset. This is a nice photo journal style publication with inspiring photos and text, with image capture information. Submission dates are September 15th, December 15th, March 15th, and June 15th, the link is: http://www.stampington.com/html/wanna_get_published.html#lifeimages It was my wife Dorian who first brought me a copy of this magazine. She is a “Stamper” among many other things crafty and Somerset is the main publishing house for these types of magazines. So I will be very thrilled if I could make my way into this publication.
I made 4 submissions, each a photograph(s) and then some accompanying text. It was fun writing the text, but I tend to get corny about things and hope that this doesn’t show too much. It’s revealing to write about a photo, just as it is revealing to keep a journal (or a blog). All sorts of things reveal themselves when you start to write. Those thoughts and connected emotions just start to sneak out. Usually when I have an image I like, I post it and work on it in Photoshop, maybe I’ll print it and that’s it. But to write about it…that adds another dimension to the meaning of an image, at least what it means to you. It’s a great exercise and I plan on doing more “photo journaling.”
Here are the submissions (some you have seen before) and the accompanying text. Please, no smirks.
Silent Performance Cooper River Bridge, Charleston SC
As I approached the top of the bridge I could feel the power of the structure as it supported its own weight above the water which flowed below and the traffic which flowed across. The beauty of each essential element working in harmony reminded me of a musical instrument, tuned to deliver a precise function. The sounds of the traffic, the wind, and the water below were rhythmic, while the bridge stood silent in its performance.
Three Lotus Leaves Jardin Bontanique de Montréal, Montréal QC
Graphic, Simple, Revealing. Life should be as such.
Still Lifes from the Past Wing Lee Yuen Truck Farm, Jacksonville FL
As long as I can remember we visited the family farm once a month. It was a long drive across town, down a dirt road, to four brick houses situated in the middle of nowhere, a bit of civilization in what seemed to be fields that went on forever. Now those days are long past, the houses recently abandoned, and the last of the land up for sale to make way for warehouses.
As a drove up to the farm on a hot August morning the fog was covering the roads and fields. My Uncle Chan was leaving for an early errand and I was left on the property, completely alone, with my camera and a lifetime of memories. I had not returned here since my father died 14 years ago but nothing had changed.
As I walked around the big barn I began to see and notice what I had never realized in all my times here. The smells, the sounds, and the nostalgic feelings were all there, but the details of hundreds of still lifes unfolded around me. Each square foot of the barn was filled with actions frozen in time. A hammer left on a tiller, gloves on a spool of wire, a chain hanging from the rafters used to pull an engine, ropes and wires hanging on nails, the scale which weighed out countless boxes of Chinese produce which at one time were shipped out as far as Michigan and New York. All of these scenes were frozen in time, the dust settled over them, but the life in their arrangements only temporarily arrested.
I knew that it was my time to record these moments with my camera, for in a matter of weeks all of this would be gone, destroyed, and never to appear again. As an animal or plant goes into extinction, so too do these articles of a past time and life. My record would be the only one for the future should anyone want to know what it was like in the barn of the Wing Lee Yuen Truck Farm.
Autumn Start Parc National du Mont-Saint-Bruno, Montréal QC
The beginnings of autumn are often missed as we normally reserve time only for the peak show of color. It is the transition between seasons that often brings us interesting observations and contrasts. The subtle hint of things to come reminds us of our own changing nature and the brilliance that can unfold from within.