not necessarily well thought out

Looking through the Flickr Mardi Gras tags I was a little discouraged by just how many drunken photos there were. Maybe this excuse to get blacked-out wasted is ruining MG in general. Maybe we should all play a joke on them... have all the festivities up until five days before Mardi Gras day. Leave them to get drunk and vomit on the streets with none of the heart and soul behind it. It makes me sad when fun events and traditions get highjacked like that. OR maybe I'm just getting older. ;)

It is a flat-out gorgeous day here behind the Orange Curtain. I'm not sure how long I'll be down here. In pure emdot style I've left everything open ended. Could be a couple days. Could be a couple weeks. I miss people and a certain cat, though. Funny... just last year I was marvelling on how I don't miss people. Something weird is in the water, cuz that is starting to change. Or maybe I'm just getting older. Heh.

I don't mind getting older, btw and ftr and fwiw.

I've been thinking a lot about photography. This is all because of flickr. Well, kinda sorta. I've always been interested in photography -- but not in the technical side, more in the I just wanted to capture a feeling side. A glance in a moment side. The way the light hit a certain something side. But never owning my own camera (I know, I know, how primitive) and also HATING to shove a camera in anyone's face and also trying very much to be in the moment and actually participating and enjoying something while it was happening rather than observing and manipulating a situation, I avoided it.

But, just like with all things, the more you do something, the more you see the possibilities. The more you see the things you could never see before. Actually, I compare it with learning about music.

I remember there was a time when I couldn't identify the different instruments that were playing in a song. A bass line? A mandolin? Different types of guitars? My ears would strain over the backbeat of the drums and I would only be able to tell you if I liked something or not.

But the more you listen the more you can hear the differences. And then you begin to hear more: when a note is off; when a tempo is different; the different sounds between similar instruments....

I'm seeing the same thing with photography. My photos are notoriously blurry. And to be honest, for a long time, I couldn't really see the difference between a little blurry and a nice straight edge. All that is changing. I didn't care about fuzziness or depth of focus or godforbid shutterspeeds and aperatures. All that is changing, too.

But there is a little part of me (and yes, if you were starting to get worried, there is a point to this long ramble) that doesn't want to learn too much, for one simple reason. I don't want to lose my love of the snapshot. And I do love the snapshot. I don't want my eyes to get so refined or critical that I can't see the loveliness in everyday photos. Much in the same way that I prefer underproduced loose and jangly garagey type music to say phil spector's work on the long and windy road, I like things paired down and more raw (for lack of a better word). I'm way more interested in the feeling of it all than the execution.

Plus I don't have manual focus. ;)

There may be more incoherent ramblings later on today. Or tomorrow. Or well, for the rest of the life of this blog, now that I think of it.

(note to self: hire editor).
(second note to self: maybe perhaps think about waiting inbetween the writing and the pushing of the "publish post" button.)