Maine Islander's photostream  

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This is perhaps more a biography of photo equipment than a real profile. It will also morph into a paean to the way that Flickr can re-open one's eyes to not only the visual feast that is the world but to the astonishing variety of ways that other people devour that feast.

I graduated from a Brownie Instamatic around 1959 to a 35mm range finder (German made, brand forgotten). Focus was manual, of course. Also needed a hand held light meter. I think Ektrachrome was the primarily available slide film. Indoor photography needed blue flashes.

My sense of what constituted good photography was formed in my childhood by Life Magazine. Later, the Gourmet magazine of the 60's and 70's set a standard, especially for travel photography. In the 70's also, I discovered the great photographers of the 20th century.

My interest in photography has waxed and waned with other interests but was re-energized with a graduation gift of my first SLR. With an arsenal of lenses between me and the world, I learned through photography to look..really look..at the world . The equipment and technology was cumbersome, however. You know: take off a macro lens and mount a telephoto lens. Or even, at its most extreme, take one film type out of the camera and replace it. Somehow the balance began to shift from creating and enhancing intimacy with the world to obscuring and distancing that intimacy.

A sketchbook era ensued. It was good. There is however always this question of fundamental talent when you have pen, pencil or pastel in hand.

I still have and use a nice Nikon film SLR, but a much reduced battery of lenses. Two years ago however I bought an inexpensive point and shoot digital camera. It's become a buddy. I carry it everywhere. It fits in my jeans pocket. It is so much less obtrusive than any other photographic technology I've used that it feels almost like a sophisticated ocular prosthesis.

I live on an island off the coast of Maine. An endlessly tempting world of natural beauty has probably permanently taken the hard edge off my photographic taste and made me a sucker for every sunrise and sunset that blasts across Penobscot Bay.

Aside from long shots and sneak shots (and family shots) I've been more than a little shy at photographing people.

Being able to see other photographers' work is enormously energizing. How to overcome my reluctance to approach and photograph friends and strangers in the exciting, revealing and intimate ways that other photographers here do:....well, that's the next challenge.

The enormous proliferation of brilliant photography on Flickr makes me ponder the forced changes in the way one must consume and enjoy these riches. I'm continually taken by the frequently breathtaking beauty of the images which are so promiscuously scattered here. I do not know quite what to make of the profound difference in the way that images are displayed and enjoyed now and the way they were displayed and enjoyed (whether painted or photographed) even a generation ago.

With all of that said, I welcome comment and criticism, whether the standards are those of old Life Magazine or the late lamented Gourmet magazine or much hipper standards.