How important are photographs to you?
Do you take lots of photographs? What do you do with them all?
Which photographs are you most thankful for?
What would my life be like without photography? I can’t quite imagine. These days, photography seems to be my sixth sense. It’s an important way I experience the world and express myself. Losing photography would be like losing one of my senses… I would survive and compensate but it would be a painful adjustment. Photography has grown deep roots in my soul.
To
say I take “lots” of photographs would be an understatement. When I stop to
take a photograph, I’ll take several images, playing with composition and
settings in order to find the best way to convey a feeling. When I go out on a
photography excursion, the total can easily be 200 or 300 photos from one
session. Out of those, if I’m lucky, there will be maybe 2 or 3 that speak to
my soul. What do I do with all of the photographs I take? Some I edit and share online. A very few –
the best of the best – I print and hang on the wall somewhere. I create
postcards and prints and share them with others. Sharing my art is like sharing
a little piece of my heart and soul with someone else.
But
what about the thousands of photographs that don’t make the cut? What do I do
with those? I keep them on my hard drive, as faint memories. They have already
served a purpose, grounding me in the experience and the moment at the time of
capture. They are the spirit of the place, the feeling. It seems wrong to
delete them. The photographs I don’t like are as important as the ones I do.
They help me learn and refine my artistic direction. They are part of my journey
too.
And
what a fantastic journey it’s been. I’m thankful to have
photography in my life. It has given me a visual voice; a means of expression I
didn’t know I needed. It has become a way to experience the world around me and
meditate on the moment. It has become a way to connect with my heart and a
window to my soul.
I’ll
be forever grateful for the joy that a photographic practice has brought to my
life.
To see more of Kat's work and read about her take on photography visit her blog.
