Tuesday 30 October 2012

The Liquidity of Light

The shoreline has been a fascination since I first picked up a camera. I am intrigued by the ever-changing boundaries it sets as waves and tides move in and out. Storms push the line of wet and dry to places not often touched while calm warm mornings entice imaginings of glistening water still and thick enough to walk on.


I am often happy to just watch and enjoy. Yet, the photographer in me is all the while seeing the possibilities that light, after a few moments bouncing in my camera, could bring.

These images were pre visualised. I know enough about picture making to 'see' beforehand what will happen when light is run through the rules of aperture and shutter speed. On this morning I set some parameters for the camera to work within and dragged it, just millimetres above washing waves and intransigent rocks, along the shoreline.

Imagination and photography work as well together as against each other. The physics and rules that govern exposure and focus are set according to an idea and the light found in places and moments. Pre-visualisation and knowledge are really only start points where light is concerned.

The best pictures are made when something unexpected (even unplanable) happens. I love how both the rocks and waves have been consumed by the liquidity of light. In some frames it is hard to tell what began as fluid or solid.

No matter the knowledge, imagination and pre-planning the magic of photography is always dominant.

These images are available as Fine Art Prints in editions of 25 only from the Collectable Photography online gallery or as stock images from Lightmoods