[Christopher Sanderson Gold Member Posts: 366]

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on: November 29, 2020 at 3:06 pm

A beautifully photographed and written essay that rewards the reader with simple truth. Thank you Paul.

[Paul Van Slambrouck Participant Posts: 3]

Re: The Virtues of Patience & Familiarity

Reply #1 on: December 2, 2020 at 3:57 pm

Thanks Chris.  Always appreciate your feedback.

[Mike Nelson Pedde Participant Posts: 641]

Re: The Virtues of Patience & Familiarity

Reply #2 on: December 5, 2020 at 6:19 pm

For three years Marcia and I lived in Kelowna, BC. There’s a small garden right downtown called Kasugai Garden, and by small I’m talking .29 ha/ .72 ac. It’s closed in the winter, but during open season I used to go there about once a week. In three years I made over a thousand images there. They’re certainly not all of any value, but they weren’t scattergun images either. I did my best with them.Here’s an example: The Dance

As Marcel Proust wrote:

“This lost country composers do not actually remember, but each of them remains all his life somehow attuned to it; he is wild with joy when he is singing the airs of his native land, betrays it at times in his thirst for fame, but then, in seeking fame, turns his back upon it, and it is only when he despises it that he finds it when he utters, whatever the subject with which he is dealing, that peculiar strain the monotony of which—for whatever its subject it remains identical in itself—proves the permanence of the elements that compose his soul. But is it not the fact then that from those elements, all the real residuum which we are obliged to keep to ourselves, which cannot be transmitted in talk, even by friend to friend, by master to disciple, by lover to mistress, that ineffable something which makes a difference in quality between what each of us has felt and what he is obliged to leave behind at the threshold of the phrases in which he can communicate with his fellows only by limiting himself to external points common to us all and of no interest, art, the art of a Vinteuil like that of an Elstir, makes the man himself apparent, rendering externally visible in the colours of the spectrum that intimate composition of those worlds which we call individual persons and which, without the aid of art, we should never know? A pair of wings, a different mode of breathing, which would enable us to traverse infinite space, would in no way help us, for, if we visited Mars or Venus keeping the same senses, they would clothe in the same aspect as the things of the earth everything that we should be capable of seeing. The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is; and this we can contrive with an Elstir, with a Vinteuil; with men like these we do really fly from star to star.”

(from: https://clearingcustoms.net/2013/12/17/what-marcel-proust-really-said-about-seeing-with-new-eyes/)

Mike.

 

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Mike Nelson Pedde
Victoria, BC
https://www.wolfnowl.com/

[John Sadowsky]

Re: The Virtues of Patience & Familiarity

Reply #3 on: December 11, 2020 at 6:58 pm

I’ll share some of my familiar experiences here.

In 2019, my wife and I, both retired, sold our house in Mesa, AZ to move to Maryland to be near our grandchildren.  We lived in a travel trailer for 6 months while our new home in MD was being built.  We were parked at a trailer park on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay for 6 weeks.  With the exception of holidays, it was pretty quiet.  It was on the Chester River, the opposite side of the river was not developed, and they had had a rustic pier.  So, I made a point of taking my gear – tripod and all – down to the pier during golden hour and sunset every day for the whole 6 weeks.  A lot of times it was boring.  But – wow – got some shots over the month.

So, we moved into our new home.  I walk my dog Izzy every day – it is about 1.5 miles to the Chesapeake Bay.  I often sling on my A7Riii with the 24-70mm lens for these walks, but not often enough.  We see a lot of Osprey, and from time to time Great Blue Herons and Bald Eagles – OK, need more than 70mm to get most of those shots.  But you can’t shoot anything if ya don’t bring the camera!  Today, Izzy and I stepped onto a pier and a flock of ducks scurried out from the shore nearby.  The sun was reflecting off the water and the ducks were right in the middle of that reflection pattern.  It was an incredible shot … but I didn’t have my camera!  I should know better.  Take the camera every time I go for a walk down to the bay – or anywhere for that matter.

JSS

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by John Sadowsky.

[Mike Nelson Pedde Participant Posts: 641]

Re: The Virtues of Patience & Familiarity

Reply #4 on: December 12, 2020 at 5:22 pm

The sun was reflecting off the water and the ducks were right in the middle of that reflection pattern.  It was an incredible shot … but I didn’t have my camera!  I should know better.  Take the camera every time I go for a walk down to the bay – or anywhere for that matter.

There’s truth in that, John. Eric Meola is known for never leaving his house without a camera. There is another side to it, though:

Learning to See… Again.

Doesn’t have to be one or the other; everything in balance.

Mike.

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Mike Nelson Pedde
Victoria, BC
https://www.wolfnowl.com/

[John Sadowsky Participant Posts: 169]

Re: The Virtues of Patience & Familiarity

Reply #5 on: December 12, 2020 at 11:01 pm

Mike – I clicked the link to the “learning to see again” post on your website, and got a “page not found” message.

Nonetheless – great camera gear does nothing if you don’t have it with you!  Duh!

JSS

[Christopher Sanderson]

Re: The Virtues of Patience & Familiarity

Reply #6 on: December 12, 2020 at 11:09 pm

By the way, here are few shots from my 6 weeks on the Chester River.

JSS

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Christopher Sanderson.

[Mike Nelson Pedde Participant Posts: 641]

Re: The Virtues of Patience & Familiarity

Reply #7 on: December 13, 2020 at 9:24 pm

Sorry, John. The link works for me. Maybe you tripped over a 1 or a 0 on the information highway?
Thanks for sharing your images.
Mike.

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Mike Nelson Pedde
Victoria, BC
https://www.wolfnowl.com/

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