Union Station The First One Hundred Years | Make Your Own Book

The Tacoma Public Library has a marvelous collection of photos dating back to the late 19th century.  I have done a quick over view of the collection of the downtown area and have started to organize them into a list that matches recognizable locations.  This is very rough at this point but it is a start.  More on that later.

A friend of mine Terry Welch is a world-class Japanese Garden designer and bonsai aficionado. He recently moved his bonsai collection to his home and has them displayed on two 30 foot shelves along the entry .  They are truly amazing works of art, some have been worked on since the 1970’s.  A number of trees are well over 200 years old.  When he first told me about them last year I knew that I had to try to photograph them.  I have always been enamored with the elegance and mystical qualities of bonsai and could hardly wait to see his collection.  I had my first look last fall just as they were turning color..I was not disappointed.  He told me recently that he had been actively working on them, now that he is semi-retired, and suggested I come for a visit to see the new Spring growth.  I stopped in the other day for a visit and recorded this video.

Taking on a project like this is a real challenge.  I am not interested in simply taking photos of the trees but want to create images that somehow convey the “other worldly” quality of the trees… no small undertaking.  After thinking about it over night (more like obsessing!) I went back with a concept to get me started.  I knew after seeing them last year that I would have to move the trees off the shelves in order to photograph them properly, it is just too crowed on the shelves, the question was where. I got the okay from Terry to move the trees and do as I pleased…which made me kind of nervous but he was matter-of-fact about it so I boldly grabbed a few small ones to get comfortable handling them.  Their house is on the beach with a lovely stone staircase in dappled shade.  I decided to take a few of the trees up the stairs to find a spot to work from along the stairway.  Bordering the stairs is a very small stream that I would also experiment with. 

My favorite “tree” was nothing more than a small clump of soil and grit with 10-12 seedlings of generic Japanese maples (Acer Palmatum) sprouting up.  Terry told me that all of tiny trees were seedlings from the same tree even though each is very different..some are red, some deeply cut, another variegated, some green with red tinged edges… miracles of genetics. His intent is to bonsai this group of trees together as one “plant”.  I took photos of this clump both on the stairs and in the stream.  For the tight shots looking up, I literally sat on a branch in the muddy stream bed with the camera positioned on a patch of gravel pointing up at the trees shooting without looking through the viewfinder.  I was a muddy mess by the end.

It was a good start but after spending three hours or so I realized this was going to be an even greater challenge than I thought.  Stay tuned!

Have a look:

One of the most important things an aspiring photographer can do is show work.. hang it on a wall someplace for others to see.  I didn’t realize the impact it would have on my “taking photos” until I actually had an opportunity to show work on a regular basis at a co-op gallery I belonged to at one point.  First of all, there is nothing like seeing a photo you have taken matted and framed hanging on the wall..even if it is your own wall.  One of the drawbacks and dangers of digital is that we tend to always view our work on the computer screen.  While the computer is essentially our darkroom and the screen our contact sheet, the printed image reveals so much more.  Perhaps it is that ingrained visual perspective we get from holding a print in our hands and seeing the image from light reflected off the paper rather than pixels illuminating the image.  Who knows?  But printing is important, important if you want to get better as a photographer. 

So, back to showing work.  When starting out I don’t think one should be too picky about venue.  Sure it would be great to hang work in some fancy gallery but that is not reality for us beginners.  You need to find a venue that will honor your work and show it in a tasteful manner that at the very least doesn’t diminish the work.  A friend of mine was showing work at a local book store.  The book shelves along the wall were at least 6 ft high so her work was hung starting at over six feet! ..not good.  Although she had some great stuff you couldn’t appreciate it it was so high on the wall.  That is what I mean by diminished. I have work currently hanging in two rather mundane locations: a church and a retirement center.  Impressive huh?  But, the locations honor my work and display it fairly well.  And… people will see it.  Although my show opening at the church was modest, this particular church hosts many community events including an upcoming regional poetry celebration where dozens of people will be exposed to my work during the event.  So… you never know who might stumble in and find something of interest in a photo you have taken.

The other important component is mental, it is your attitude toward your work that changes.  If you are constantly collecting images on the computer, not printing and showing, you never confront that decisive moment when you truly have to look at what your doing and make a value judgment: this is good, this bad, this is a possibility..etc.  This process in part helps begin to establish “vision”, vision of what you want to do, what you want to say as a photographer.  That is critical if you really want to get better, absolutely critical.  Enough said…I’m sure I’ll return to this again in another post.

See the stuff I have hanging at the retirement center below: