Something To Say

I really only have one topic on this blog. Not including weird side trips into history.

The attentive reader will know that my theme, my sole theme, is this:

Have something to say. And then, say it.

This is the first of an interlocked pair of postings on that topic.

The first thing about making an actual photograph instead of some random pointless snap is to have something to say. As noted ad nauseum in earlier posts, this need not be expressible in words. It might be a visual idea, a feeling, a reaction. Ideally it is something powerful, but it need not be. The point is that it is something with which your picture is imbued, which is beyond the simple assemblage of things and forms in the frame.

Something clearly visible to you, at least, and ideally to some other people as well.

So where do you find something to say? The simplest place, for me, is inside me. The things I have to say are basically personal statements. How does this object strike me? How do I imagine this neighborhood? How could I imagine this thing is an amusing way?

The car is beautiful. I imagine this basically ordinary neighborhood as a Gothic nightmare. The flowers ooze sensuality. Let's visualize the rock as sexy.

You could place yourself in another's shoes, and try the same questions from someone else's point of view.

You can try larger political statements. Cars are bad. Trees are better than buildings. How would a radical left/right/libertarian view this scene, this object, this situation?

Next up, how to say it.