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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Happy To Be Here

Michaela Taylor

New member
Helloooo,

Very happy to have found this forum as this seems to be somewhere where there are people with the same interests as me.

I am very into capturing the 'is-ness' of things - such a lovely phrase - explains everything! Often my photographs have no other meaning other than the is-ness of the thing, but I like them anyway.

I use a Nikon d3100 with a Sigma 70 - 300 macro lens most often. It has a very wide range of usefulness. Although I am mildly jealous of my mom's 90mm macro.

Haven't been doing photography for very long, and am working everyday to improve my craft. I view photography as an extension of my art (I am an artist as well). I take photos of what I can't paint, except now I paint what I take photos of

I'm really interested in photography as art and the art of the photo. Looking forward to having some discussions about the art of taking a photo with everyone.

Here are a few of my photos and art to let you have a feel for my work. Randomly selected from a wide range of subjects.



Cheetah%2525202%252520stittng-001.jpg


Glowiing%252520Oragnge%252520Zebras-001.jpg


DSC_6960-001.JPG


DSC_7026-002.JPG


DSC_8571-001.JPG


DSC_5362-001.JPG



As you can see I have a preference for black and white photography, and am definitely going to be exploring film when I get a chance.
 

Lee Tracy

New member
I just thought I would mention, in the interests of clarity and to avoid confusion, Michaela is my daughter and we both have a D3100 and often, but not always, end up taking photos of the same things - although hers are very different to mine (and better!).
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Helloooo,

Very happy to have found this forum as this seems to be somewhere where there are people with the same interests as me.


"I am very into capturing the 'is-ness' of things
- such a lovely phrase - explains everything!
Often my photographs have no other meaning
other than the is-ness of the thing,
but I like them anyway."


Michaela Taylor


I'm really interested in photography as art and the art of the photo. Looking forward to having some discussions about the art of taking a photo with everyone.



Cheetah%2525202%252520stittng-001.jpg




Michaela,

Your artistic sensibility shows with this sublime cheetah portrait against an abstract desert-like background. You frame the animal as confidant, powerful getting our respect and admiration in just a glance. The framing is counterintuitive, as the feet are cut off! But that works well in sending us to the Cheetah's head, without dallying on details that we "know" are there. Efficient and functional esthetics. You're boldness pays off with a superb viewer experience! Bravo!

Thanks so much for following your mother's artistic energy and inner compass! We're fortunate to have you both! Yes, we need the is-ness of things before we exploit them for something else. But even lion and sheep, cockroach and rat, monkey and parrot, snake and owl have become embedded in our languages as "character traits" of humans. As language is built only of metaphors, the "is-ness" of things themselves may get lost! But we need to recognize a flower, as just that, not as a house gift or a decoration for a concert stage or an award for the opera singer or burton hole of the groom!

A friend of mine, Mike Spinak, goes barefoot in the wilderness, so as not to damage anything. He carefully adjusts his position around a plant to make his fine pictures, but does not break any brach away to get better access. He sees the "is-ness" of that wild flower and the responsibility only to pay homage but never to plunder. That's a pretty high demand on most of us, but it does show the value of respecting and celebrating the "is-ness" of things.

There are much more important implications of the "is-ness" of our social lives. For example, we need to hear our victims, not just classify them. We need to hear out community in rage after police brutality, We need to recognize and hear the "is-ness" of the pictures of war in Syria or rape victims around the world.

So, I see concentrating on the "being" of your subject, a sense of respect that could be a foundation for us to better treasure diversity in humans too. A flower, (or a woman that's beautiful), is not so just for our entertainment. Every flower and lion has a right to be beautiful without being owned or exploited by the first person on the scene.

So thanks for introducing folk to this concept. It should have traction and get supporters.

Asher
 

Michaela Taylor

New member

"I am very into capturing the 'is-ness' of things
- such a lovely phrase - explains everything!
Often my photographs have no other meaning
other than the is-ness of the thing,
but I like them anyway."


Michaela Taylor







Cheetah%2525202%252520stittng-001.jpg




Michaela,

Thanks so much for following your mother's artistic energy and inner compass! We're fortunate to have you both! Yes, we need the is-ness of things before we exploit them for something else. But even lion and sheep, cockroach and rat, monkey and parrot, snake and owl have become embedded in our languages as "character traits" of humans. As language is built only of metaphors, the "is-ness" of things themselves may get lost! But we need to recognize a flower, as just that, not as a house gift or a decoration for a concert stage or an award for the opera singer or burton hole of the groom!

A friend of mine, Mike Spinak, goes barefoot in the wilderness, so as not to damage anything. He carefully adjusts his position around a plant to make his fine pictures, but does not break any brach away to get better access. He sees the "is-ness" of that wild flower and the responsibility only to pay homage but never to plunder. That's a pretty high demand on most of us, but it does show the value of respecting and celebrating the "is-ness" of things.

There are much more important implications of the "is-ness" of our social lives. For example, we need to hear our victims, not just classify them. We need to hear out community in rage after police brutality, We need to recognize and hear the "is-ness" of the pictures of war in Syria orrape victims around the world.

So, I see concentrating on the being of this feline in your picture, an important sense of direct honesty and respect that could be a foundation of respecting individuals too. A flower, (or a woman that's beautiful), is not so just for our entertainment. Every flower and lion has a right to be beautiful without being owned or exploited by the first person on the scene.

So thanks for introducing folk to this concept. It should have traction and get supporters.

Asher

Thanks Asher for the great welcome! For a long time I had trouble explaining my philosophy of photography to others then while reading a book about Zen in photography I came across this qoute " The Zen discipline consists of attaining enlightenment (or satori).... satori finds meaning hitherto hidden in our daily experiences...The meaning thus revealed is in being itself, in becoming itself, in living itself... in the "is-ness" of a thing" and I thought Ah ha! There! That is what I want to take photos of! The is-ness of the subject, it is so easy to lose sight of how beautiful thing's are not for their meaning or function but simply by being what they are...

To capture a cheetah being nothing but what it is (or a flower) in a photo or a painting is to (for a moment) share it's joy at being and if done well enough, to be able to share that moment with others.... :)
 
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