Blogs Are Like That

Manhattan Beach Pier

Jeff Lowe

Listening to: The Hallelujah Chorus, Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Lay a Garland, Cloudburst, Elijah Rock, Hymn of Praise, and The Star Spangled Banner
Performers: Santa Monica High School Chorale

I was mentioning to my son that the calendar page has flipped four times since my last post in October.

"Blogs are like that," he responded.

Good intentions are like that. New Year's resolutions are like that though I've never made one. Life is like that. Like what?

Not doing "it" whatever "it" may be at the moment. Despite my good intentions and that nagging little voice telling me I should update my blog, I realized I must not want to badly enough. If I did, I would. Or, since I'm such a bore and poor at writing, maybe I just don't want to go through the exercise of writing unless I have something important, life changing, or earth shattering to say. Haven't written anything that fits into those categories so that can't be it.

It's like that with my photography. I try to escape shooting just anything and posting just anything. Sure, I take a many photos very casually which will fall into the mediocre branch of my photo family. Not art by a long shot. I try to avoid taking merely casual style photos unless it holds promise of becoming an artistic image.

And that's what the photo above is about. An average pier photo taken a million times by countless folks including me.

With this shot, I wanted to take the ordinary image, that composition and execution which I thought I had mastered, and try and create fresh art. Some photographers take countless photos of flowers or nature, or their cat or dog, or whatever strikes their fancy. That's why if I think I've gotten the hang of photographing a windswept wave or flower, it's not likely you'll end up seeing a billion of them posted on my website unless I can capture that special something that creates that uniquely artistic image.

I want to try and stay impassioned. about taking casual clicks which hold potential for excellence and perhaps touching someone besides myself. I don't know if you agree but I do know that when I started taking photos a couple of years ago, I told myself that taking "casual clicks" was one thing I was going to do just for me.

Ok, truth be told, I do dream of opening a uniquely funky, innovative discovery studio and gallery yesterday...a welcoming place of exploration and learning and connecting about photography and all art and music in its various forms. Plug-in an interactive children's garden built by youngsters with outreach to local schools relating to the garden experience, photography and arts, and I think I'd be able to expand my passion beyond my photo taking.

For now, it seems I'm really just a guy trying to take photos I like...unless, of course, you have connections and can maybe help make my dream come true.

Jeff/Casual Clicks