I was rummaging through a box of books in the garage, you know, hoping I’d not thrown out the very book I now wanted, when I turned over a copy of “The Joy of Photography”, from Eastman Kodak Company. For those that have never heard of them, they used to make a product called, ‘filum’, back just at the beginning of the Jurassic Period. 🙂
I know that a number of the dear readers of this sometimes monotonous blog, were probably not ever born when the book first rolled from the presses. Kodak, among many of its tentacles, had a publishing arm, that specialised in ‘how-to’ books to help budding photographers learn some of the skills of the craft. This of course was way back in the days before social media platforms spewed out erroneous, badly researched and often downright inaccurate information from keyboard experts who never actually ventured beyond their monitors to take, well, real, photos.
But,
I digress.
A quote in the introduction from noted photographer, Ernst Haas,“Art is Aristocratic—photography is its democratic voice.”, sets the scene or tenure of the book. (Please don’t tear off to ebay and buy a copy, much of it has to do with that aforementioned, ‘filum’ and the hardware and techniques to craft a photo back in the olden days.)
Based on the recent drift of my Saturday evening discourses, the opening page had a quote I thought worth repeating here. Hoping of course that the copyright of the text is beyond the statute of limitations or what ever controls text reuse these days.
Under the heading of “The Vision: The joy of photography is learning to see” the authors say:
“The world of photography is a personal one. We take pictures to express our feelings about people, nature, and the world around us. And as in any other art of communication, be it writing, music or art, we experience great pleasure when the results of our efforts communicate what we set out to say.”
There— couldn’t have said it better meself.
Sneaky little quote because the book is then divided into techniques for photographing:
People,
Nature,
The world around us. 🙂
It rambles on from there about ‘visually articulate’, but if I have to look up words in a dictionary, I usually skip over them 🙂
We had the good fortune, and a little help from a few friends, to come upon pair of Great Crested Grebe at the Jawbone Reserve, in the middle of a nesting.
They had just exchanged sitting duties, and this one really needed to stretch out, bathe and relax. Once suitably damped, it needed to dry out the feathers.
En-Joy
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER - --doesn't mean I'm LOST 
Great quote. Always enjoy old books from my youth and seeing and reading through mature eyes.
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I guess I’d be a bookaholic. The real skill is knowing what to keep that will prove its worth, and what to pass on to others to make room in the limited shelf area.
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A fascinating quote! Great that you still have the book! A fine shot of the Grebe too! I had heard that they are nesting, must go have look!
I spotted just the one Snipe yesterday, just inside the northern fence about 30 metres west of the gate. I couldn’t walk right around the perimeter as the path is flooded in a few places. It is probably starting to subside by now.
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Oh, I’ve stil got a lot of books, that are well beyond their relavance date. 🙂 Fun to see who styles have changed, and how some great photos, stand head and shoulders above the rest, and are still dynamic in their story.
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A unique capture David, and yes well spoken about the way photography communicates what we want others to see. I do think that the more we apply ourselves to birdwatching and photography, the more we mindfully see, and can see the once hidden truth about life revealed gradually. There is seeing to just to say I see and seeing to understand and appreciate. Photography develops our latter. Enjoy your week, and hope it fines up for you seen to get out again.
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Hello Ashley, Jon Young in “What the Robin Knows” spends a chapter or two on making the point of how a better understanding of the world around us, the nuances and the unending changing of the seasons helps us to discover within ourselves. I don’t study Chinese philosphy religion, (Dao), but some readings show that the old masters recognised much the same thing.
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A beautiful shot of the GC Grebe, and a good quote.
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They are quite easy to find at Jawbone, as I know your group goes that way from time to time. The young are hatching this week, so should be in the water soon.
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And magic it is – I mean your shot of the Great Crested Grebe enjoying some time of leisure. The old books are a chapter in themselves; in fact many chapters we had read a long time ago and when we read them anew, they bring us the joy of remembering or re-discovering again.
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Hi Adam, you did have a great run earlier in the season with the pair over your way.
There are several old books, mostly from my teen years, when I was learning the craft, that I would love to reread, and enjoy again the thrill of how someone else introduced me to this magic world.
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