Sometimes, expressions are just priceless. I can't really do justice to the expression on this little girls face when she saw this horse, whose head is bigger than her. Her face turned into a crumpled white sheet... and then she started crying....

For all the visitors that come to my blog everyday, I thank you. I started this blog about a year ago, and its been about a year of posts, and the whole excercise has been wonderful. I've met so many new interesting photographers and people and found so many great portfolios - just that alone was worth it. Recently I've been working on some other projects, so haven't been that diligent in posting. I appreciate your comments and thoughts, hope you will continue to visit for many years more, in spite of my laziness :)....

Today was not my day.

Started with waking up late, being late to the doctors office, finding that appointments WERE really needed, getting into an accident with a deaf lady, who decided that she didn't want to stay, chasing her for a few miles to catch up, getting a stinky rental car, going to the gym to find that its closed, and ending with my food being missing on the delivery order. I'm waiting for the clock to reach midnight.

My friend Ilan had once mentioned that he didn't care much for landscapes, because they can get cliched and boring - I can see how that could be - in fact, while I was taking the picture above in Sheffield, England, somebody asked (in a mocking tone) exactly what I found about landscapes interesting. I thought about it and I realized that personally for me, I just like being part of beautiful landscapes. Being there is enough, to be able to capture it no matter how many have done it before me, is an enjoyable experience. Bringing the image home completes that experience.

It got me thinking about media genres in general. It seems certain genres in photography (and movies, etc) tend to gain more attention than others. These genres are more on the serious side, showing problems and areas where we have work to do. Its probably why comedies have never won Oscars, and photographs about impoverished third world countries seem to win all the awards. I understand it to some extent; my personal favourite genre of photography is documentary photography, and ideally, I would like to use it to make people aware of things they should be aware of. Unfortunately, these things don't include comedies (in movies) and landscapes (in photography). Another one of my personal photography related philosphy is that photography should evoke emotions. So, then does that emotion always need to be the one of drama? Why is it that we are not equally moved by a funny picture as opposed to a serious one? Drama vs comedy - do they evoke equally extreme emotions? If so, why do media with only dramatic subjects win all the accolades? What do you think?

A Drive through Switzerland

A drive through Switzerland is everything that I thought it would be. Mountains, lakes and the requisite chocolate stops makes this one of the more memorable road trips in Europe.

Cliché

Aside from the pristine beaches, there is another side of Jamaica landscape that I noticed when I ventured out from the sheltered resort area. When you venture inland, there is a plethora of other scenery that is very different than the tourism posters of Jamaica. I happened to walk off the hotel property, and stumbled upon the edge of golf course which was not really part of it, but still was very well taken care of. Either way, anybody would be more than ecstatic to have it as their backyard.

On a different note, I wanted to mention something about photographic cliches. Photographic cliches are images that are created with motifs that are very common, such as sunrise/sunset beaches, mountaineous landscapes, rocks in water, autumn leaves, white fences - and lone trees. I've probably rattled off about 70% of the recent pictures you've seen on the web (and possibly on my blog). The truth is that in the current digital age, and the easy access to camera equipment/technology, its pretty hard to be original, especially for amateurs like myself. All this is a little depressing unless you're a creative genius, and so the philosophy has to change. So if you're not going to create the next original masterpiece, then I guess the thing to take note off is whether you're having fun, and whether you believe in what you created (or are creating) - IMHO, its all worthwhile as long as that requirement is met. Also, I strongly believe that once you are having fun and believe in what you're doing, you will end up creating that masterpiece at some point. Yes, the lone tree motif has been done many times before, but I'm fairly confident its not that rampant in landscapes of Jamaica (I hope). This is my thought process in the ever changing, saturated world of photography of today. What is your approach?