Recognizing Inspiration

My main inspiration comes from nature. I feel a deep connection with it. I love to get away from concrete and buildings to totally connect with life in its purest form. To feel and breathe in oneness with it all makes me more alive and aware.

I like to get very close to a flower, to go beyond what my eyes see...

The following things count for me the most in photography:

1) Total awareness in the presence of my subject. Feeling the essence within, getting to the very heartbeat of what I am observing.

2) Capturing an image that depicts that heart connection. One that conveys that initial feeling I experience, rather than over-editing what I see later on the screen. I don't care for special effects unless I'm doing something for fun! I don't like to 'embellish' a photo beyond recognition in which the whole subject loses its soul in the process.

3) I prefer an image which speaks to me, which captures what I feel as opposed to one that is visually 'perfect' photographically speaking, but doesn't create that warm glow inside of me.

When I am in the presence of trees, I can feel the life force emanating from them

When I observe a flower, I penetrate into its heart and lose myself in its presence

I let the colours and the shapes penetrate my very being, I feel as if I am breathing them in

When I observe a blade of grass or see a leaf illuminated by the sun, I am pulled into the world of the subject I am observing and we join together in a silent exchange 

Any excitement I may feel comes from being in the presence of nature. At this point, I am capturing what I see with my eyes and all my other senses, there is almost no need for the camera because everything is being imprinted within me.

However, when I do have my camera with me, there is the feeling of capturing that precise moment in time and taking photos from different angles.

Editing is not my favourite part and I hope to edit less and less as I get into the manual settings of my camera.

Looking at the  images on the computer tells me if I have captured what I felt in the moment. I eliminate the photos which do not express the essence with which I entered into contact at the time of capture.

Editing is not a very strong source of creative inspiration for me. In fact, it can sometimes remove the meaningful depth of the subject photographed.

In the last few weeks, I have also noticed that I can  be captivated by abstract shapes and that I could be inspired by those shapes, as well as by texture and by colour.