My wife recently posted one of my pictures (the one above) to Facebook. One of her friend’s commented: “Beautiful!! … Eirah, tell Howard that when he gets tired of his camera or makes an upgrade I’ll be happy to take it off his hands.” I know that she meant well, but I have a couple of problems with this comment.

First, I don’t really think that this picture is all that “beautiful”. I’ve never displayed it anywhere as I don’t really like it that much. It’s mostly just a large splash of color. Many would say that a picture should say something. I’m not sure that I agree with this. After all Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’ doesn’t say much, but it’s a beautiful creation. Yes, it has color – but it also has more: lines, focal points, space, etc. This photograph doesn’t have a clear focus. The grass leads off into nowhere. The brightly colored leaves obscure what might have been a focal point (i.e. the house). If I’d gotten down lower I might have made the house more visible. Even if I had chosen the house as a focal point I shouldn’t have placed it so much in the center. The exposure around the house is also off – way too dark. So if it’s so bad, why did I take the picture? Well, “it seemed like a good idea at the time your honour”. I suspect I may seen something (I don’t know what), but then failed totally in realizing it. If I had it to do again I think I could do better, but as it is I’m just left with a splash of color.

Second, if the picture did have merit I’d like to think that the photographer would have had something to do with it. I learned a long time ago that the camera doesn’t make the picture. Yes, an expensive camera can make some photographic tasks easier, faster etc. but the overall vision has to come from the photographer. That’s where I mostly failed with this picture: I didn’t think enough about what I was trying to achieve. I’ve seen many, many mediocre to lousy pictures taken with flashy equipment. Many of mine fall into this category. I’ve also seen great pictures (not so many) taken with inexpensive gear. To me a truly great photographer (and I certainly don’t put myself in that category) can take a great picture with virtually any camera.

So much as I appreciate the kind words in the comment I can’t take them all that seriously.