Scott Bourne over at TWIP had a post this morning that made me think. Scott was discussing the art side of photography, the human side. While we all love obsessing over new gadgets, gear, and technology, I think we are all primarily motivated by the emotional response we get from photography. Here is my reply to Scott's post.
I've always looked at photography as a chance to share how the world looks through my eyes. For better or worse, I seem to have a non-standard perspective. I see things that other people don't. No, I don't see dead people, but I notice little details, light falling in an interesting way, and relationships between things that don't immediately seem related. When ever I point out one of these observations, people wonder how I came up with the connection. Undiagnosed ADD could have something to do with it. However, regardless of my current mental health, my photography helps me show the world how I see.
That's why I love looking at photographs from others. It gives me insight into what's important to them and from which perspective they observe their surroundings. The more I get into photography the more I realize that it's about people and relationships. Whether the relationship is between the photographer and a model, the photographer and a mountain, or the photographer and some cranes flying through the mist, I think photographs are manifestations of relationships.
I took this picture while I was listening to the Ohio State Alumni Band performing in Worthington last weekend. I looked up and saw the weathervane that was slightly obscured by some of the trees, but could be nicely framed if I found the right angle. The trouble was that I was in the middle of a performance and didn't have much opportunity to find a new angle. I had to get creative. That's when I thought of my depth of field. I cranked open my aperture to f/4 and zoomed in as far as my telephoto would go. The resulting shallow depth of field removed the offending leaves sufficiently to give me a workable frame for the shot. I did a little Lightroom post processing that included:
I'm participating in the 
This past week has been pretty crazy and I haven't had much chance to blog this week but this article has lingered with me. The Reuters Photography blog has some really spectacular photos and stories. It's an inside look at photojournalism in the big leagues. Usually, it's the articles about Iraq or Afghanistan that grab my attention, but this one did too. In this article Fabrizio Bensch documents the process of harvesting organs from a donor. 
