SHOWING IT ALL....
I have a big garden. An acre. And while some of it is under control, a lot of it isn't. I spend a lot of time mowing and weeding, mulching and pruning and sometimes...sometimes it just seems too hard.
So this year I decided to enjoy my garden, and to take a photo each week and share it on Facebook. This allows me to see the garden through fresh eyes. To take my time, to enjoy it again.
Recently though it was suggested that my photos are almost a 'lie'.
That I do not show my garden in reality. The weeds, the lawns needing mowing, the overgrown jungle that claims more each week. I have never said my garden is neat and tidy. Like my house (and my writing desk) I wish they were but...heh can I call them a work in progress?
But like any photo, you choose what you want to capture.
You take a few steps this way, few that way, make sure that you have the view you want. That is what photography is all about.
I mean hands up those of us that share bad photographs of ourselves. We choose the ones that make us look good. Good angle, good lighting, good hair day....and the same with my garden photos. I wander around the garden, see what catches my eye, take a few snaps and then see which one suits what I am after.
I do nothing special, it's a simple point and shoot camera.
But I do choose what to show.
Do I want the whole bed in the picture or just the one flower/ plant that I want to share?
Which angle? Which tells the best story?
I do the same in my writing. 99% of what I write is fiction. Fiction with a twang of truth. That doesn't mean I have to include everything. I don't have to give a perfect physical description of my main character, down to the wart on his little finger and the cowlick that forces him to part his hair to the left.
Unless it's necessary to the story. Unless it moves the story forward, gives us an insight into character, makes the reader understand what we are saying.
If it's not needed then we don't include it.
I know what's to the left and the right of these cyclamens. To the left spider plants and azaleas, the the right silver birch, azalea, camelia....behind...acanthus and birds nest fern....also blackberries and ivy tangled in the planting coming from next door. Do you need to see it all?
Do you?
So this year I decided to enjoy my garden, and to take a photo each week and share it on Facebook. This allows me to see the garden through fresh eyes. To take my time, to enjoy it again.
That I do not show my garden in reality. The weeds, the lawns needing mowing, the overgrown jungle that claims more each week. I have never said my garden is neat and tidy. Like my house (and my writing desk) I wish they were but...heh can I call them a work in progress?
But like any photo, you choose what you want to capture.
You take a few steps this way, few that way, make sure that you have the view you want. That is what photography is all about.
I mean hands up those of us that share bad photographs of ourselves. We choose the ones that make us look good. Good angle, good lighting, good hair day....and the same with my garden photos. I wander around the garden, see what catches my eye, take a few snaps and then see which one suits what I am after.
I do nothing special, it's a simple point and shoot camera.
But I do choose what to show.
Which angle? Which tells the best story?
I do the same in my writing. 99% of what I write is fiction. Fiction with a twang of truth. That doesn't mean I have to include everything. I don't have to give a perfect physical description of my main character, down to the wart on his little finger and the cowlick that forces him to part his hair to the left.
Unless it's necessary to the story. Unless it moves the story forward, gives us an insight into character, makes the reader understand what we are saying.
If it's not needed then we don't include it.
Do you?
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