Sunday, January 23, 2011

Edge


PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL: This week Connecticut is riding the cusp of winter; Arctic chill is freezing lakes and streams, and record-breaking low temperatures are imminent. Daily, the sun pushes back a few of the edges, melts the high points off of mounded snow along the road's edge and glazes it white. Then every few days it snows, restoring edge; as the temperature stings, the river grows photogenic. Keep back from the edge. Sometimes edge divides what is safe from what is suspect; at other times, edge gives contour to challenges.

It's probably a good idea for photographers to watch edges, the spots where mountains suddenly become valleys, where water meets air or where a storm or a smile breaks. These are the places where magic happens. Keep special watch where day meets night, or motion stops. The image stopped on my computer monitor waits while I tune edges and tones making them silky or making them husk. Where is the edge between me and my photo? I stay by the computer while impatient to open new edges with my lens.