Formal and informal views

My buddy Sean dropped over last night to drink some wine and talk photography. We had a wonderful time, with me trying to learn more about groups of photos, how to make them more than the sum of their parts.

I posted such a group yesterday. I think. The last 4 photos had something in common. They represent a bit of my photographic journey, some of the threads that are being woven together. A view of trees in Fish Creek, somewhat moody, but showing an obscure path disappearing into the distance. A snapshot photo of a dear friend waiting for something, showing serenity but also asking what's interesting about me that you're taking a photo? Then a landscape destination photo. Lastly a self portrait of me fighting off the jaws of opposition threatening to engulf me, or something.

Or maybe Sean might say that's after the fact pretentious bullshit. Because if you look at the file numbers, they are all 3530.jpg, with different dates to make a unique file name. When I searched for that number to bring up the seascape I got all 4. I thought that was a delightful bit of serendipity and would blog it.

So here's three panorama shots for you, a standalone, and a pair of similar shots that I like so much I can't bear to assign one to unseen oblivion.

When we were driving up to Larnach Castle we saw this gorgeous view. We dared not stop. There was nowhere really to stop on our side of the road, and traffic all over the place. On the way back we deliberately took this route, even though Siri said she had a faster route. One that side of the road is a tiny little pullout not much bigger than our car. I stopped. Clicked. Enjoyed the view. Back in the car.

Larnach Castle is amazing. Built into the grounds are a gazebo and a viewing platform overlooking the bay, as part of a set of steps going from the grounds to a lower garden. I sat in each for a while, enjoying the view, and thinking what composition I liked. There are several photos of individual chunks of this in more detail that you'll probably see sooner or later.

But I could just picture myself in the gazebo, drinking coffee in the morning, mint tea in the afternoon, and wine in the early evening, plugging away on the never-ending novel on my laptop. Or maybe editing photos. Or maybe just enjoying the view while dedicated staff brought the drinks. In fact, now that I think of it, working there probably wouldn't be terribly productive from an output point of view, but sure would be peaceful.

And yes, that's what it really looked like.