For many years, decades actually, I was a guest judge at the Coastal Camera Club based in Lewes, usually judging two competitions each year. A routine category each month was color which resulted in lots, and I mean lots, of photographs of flowers. And why not? Where else could you find such easily accessible beautiful colors. It was the easiest and best subject which is why I usually did not give a high score. As the guest judge I was asked to field questions about my scoring and, more specifically, what I thought about an individual’s photo and why I didn’t score it higher. I tried to get across my rationale but was generally met with crowd disagreement and disapproval. SO…here I am posting a flower picture: me, arch enemy of pictures of flowers, or so it seemed. Now I can share again my thinking and defend why I post beautiful flower photographs. I took my role as judge pretty seriously and tried my best to make my participation in the club a teaching opportunity. To me photography is a discipline, a kraft, an art form, a creative process that makes me see a scene around me clearer. As my friend, colleague and photography partner for many years Kevin Fleming observed; what is the photograph within the scene? Photography makes me SEE! More accurately stated it makes me kook and analyze. It grows my perception of the world around me through refinement of my vision and creative mind. So back to my teaching opportunity to my fellow photographers at the club contests, I wanted to encourage deeper looks at color in the world around us. Please expand beyond the ‘easy’ and look for that next layer within the scene. Find it where you might not have suspected it and then show us that unexpected burst of color through your art. Find something we may not have seen on our own and reveal its attractiveness to us. So I defend my sharing of this tulip covered in rain drops that I shot yesterday morning because I know for sure you weren’t there and you didn’t see it. It might not have gotten a high score from me in a contest I judged (depends on what else was entered) but I hope it gives anyone who sees it a sense of a chilly, drizzly, overcast morning in which even the flowers can’t be bothered to wake up, but in which color abounds.
