Winter Wonderland

For me, winter photography is mostly about visiting cemeteries and walking through the woods. That's the way I see it. And as of late, with personal changes in my circumstances, visiting Detroit just is not an option. I really do not mind the break, either.

Seeing the devastation wears my soul thin.

And not having much time for photography lately crystallizes my options as I can it seems I can usually find something to catch my eye in a cemetery (as long as I vary my choices in locations.) Shooting Detroit is spotty. Recently I went through my older photos, which are arranged by shooting date. I could see that I did have an occasional dry run (digitally speaking) and the shots I took were so I did not come home completely empty-handed. That's the issue with roaming shoot.

And as is my custom, I think too much on many things, and recently, while posting a comment to a fellow-Flckr, I stopped to think about what it is that compels us to take a photo. Something catches our eye. We see it, or the group of its, and our [usually] subconscious minds conjure what we guess might be a worthwhile reason to push down the shutter button. I usually do not think when I'm shooting, or at least I try not to. "Zen" is a good way of categorizing the state of mind I most prefer when out with my cameras, and is the principle reason I only shoot alone. I took friends along a few times and the yack-yack-yack drove me bonkers. That and the fact that since we were both confined to a car, whatever caught my eye was the target for both of us, pretty much limiting my guest's choices in subject matter.

I think we have inner subconscious filters that draw us to certain types of images. My themes seem to be death, destruction, and non sequitur images, things that are together in the same frame but shouldn't be.
Most of the time, I am unaware of these filters. I note that when I drive through more affluent neighborhoods with mansions and gated communities, besides keeping an eye out for the security forces who want to examine my papers and who demand a reason for my presence in the land of gold, I see nothing I want to shoot. Well, it might be interesting to contrast these neighborhoods with what I find in Detroit, but besides that, the manicured "beauty" leaves me Zen-Flat.

Back to the winter (it's hard to ignore right now with so much snow everywhere), I am totally stoked driving through cemeteries in the winter. When snow is abundant, it just adds to the isolation and beauty afield. A common theory about these days is that we are born and die alone. Why pretend it is a group effort?

I am active in cemetery groups in Flickr and that adds an appeal to my desire to post so much in this topic. You know I have an affinity for plastic flowers!

If my cemetery work does not appeal to you, come back in the spring. I'll see what I can do about rotating my subject matter.