Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Second Post of the Day


So I got up very early, before work, to take some pictures of autumn here, believing that morning light is some how better, more real and more alive. The picture above is rather special. It was a very fleeting shot; only there for a minute to be captured on that cloudy morning. At that moment from the spot I took the shot from, it was overcast; but in the distance I could see a patch of sun working its way through the clouds.


The day before I had mentally noted how many leaves had fallen and were now lying on ground, creating a carpet of leaves. It made walking noisily inevitable, and silently impossible. The next morning it became clear that sometime in the night the fallen leaves had been swept up, although the job had not been done well. But then I remembered that it had been very windy over night (so windy that I had mistaken the rustling trees for rain). And so the paths had, in fact, been cleared by the wind, now the leaves laid in large drifts waiting to be raked up.


Below are some pictures of my students. Their great kids and willing subjects for pictures. The trick to getting a good shot is easy, so I will share it; just make them laugh. Everyone loves to laugh. So with children, all you need to do is do something goofy (which explains why it comes so easy to me) and they will smile. The last picture is actually quite interesting. The student in red, looking right at the camera, is in first grade and is one of the smallest kids in the class. He constantly gets picked on, which endures him to me, and he's very sweet. The picture was taken from very far away, which is why they have such natural poses. There were many kids in front of me at the time, trying to get their pictures taken. But I was, of course, taller then them and spotted the shot I wanted. The shot was fully zoomed (hence the slight fuzziness) and has also been cropped. Normally I prefer to let the images speak for themselves but some may be wondering about my process. Insight can in many instances enhance the meaning of an image.



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