shadows on the wall

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regarding the right balance ilan remarked tongue-in-cheek 'The most brilliant artists, are those who were unstable ;)'. undeniably, great works of art were created by borderline artists, and the world would be poorer without those pieces. in my humble opinion however, this is a role model that is connected with quite some drawbacks not only for the artists - they are solely responsible for their actions as everybody else - but also for their surroundings. not easy to have a brother who cuts his ear, to switch from bank business to painting and so on. undeniable those resumes hint to hardships for the relatives of the artist.

so balancing the artistic way with the necessities of daily life in my eyes has its merits (i don't decline the possibility that this could be pure convenience) and looking at both sides of the medal, at action and reaction, at form and shadow for me does reveal things to see, to percieve and to appreciate - enough food for my photography at least.

the image above was accomplished in the very last minute of a family excursion, when i just went back to fetch my gear. now late in the evening, in the really quiet hours of the day, it revealed its quality for me and asked for a tiny bit extra treatment to balance the shapes.

and trying to balance my visual perception with some music, i found Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now in a life recording on you tube. highly recommended.

this photo on flickr

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the right balance

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biking itself is not the most important thing when going with the kids. this bog did not offer the frog spawn we were hoping to find, but the 2nd fallen tree was good for taking off the shoes and balancing over the water (the 1st broke under the weight of the testing father...).

finding the right balance also in photography is a permanent challenge for me. balancing the wishes and possibilities and coming to an equilibrium that is nirvana and not tedium means clearly weighing realistic opportunities, personal skills and wishful thinking. my goal of doing more landscape photography - last year i started photographing a nearby canyon - had slight compatibility issues with the family. getting up at sunday 05:00 yielded a decidedly negative reaction from the affected wife, somewhat understandable taking into account the workload. but instead photographing people, something i had ruled out because of an apparent lack of communication skills, yielded good results. Interestingly enough not communicating in my mother tongue - and not in the mother tongue of my counterparts - was easier than similar attempts earlier at home. and now i am trying to translate this back...

a term that i found as important as balance is 'carpe diem'. envisioning images, open-eyedly perceiving light and moods means less procrastinating, as every moment offers different opportunities. the balance here is not to overstate own mission goals but to equate with other requirements. same i try to teach my daughters, but teaching by example sometimes is hard.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.