Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Solitude

Solitude at the Houston Arboretum 9/20/2011
I had lunch with Debi Beauregard near Town and Country and was headed back home. Debi wasn't going to make the competition at the club and I offered to met and pick up her entry. Glad I did. She entered one photo and took home the first place ribbon. Thought I would stop in the Arboretum since I hadn't been there in a while. I took the Inner Loop and for the entire trip only saw one other person who was headed the opposite direction. This was shot at the pond at the far end of the Loop. As usual didn't get any photos worth while but enjoyed the time. It was warm but not unpleasant and may have had one encounter with a mosquito--not really sure but it was quite a change from normal when they eat you alive. Shot this with the Samsung propped on a fence rail. Surprisingly I didn't get lost since I stuck to one trail. The last time I was there I kept branching off on trails till I had no idea where I was. I shot photos for an hour and spent two hours trying to find my way back--well, maybe it wasn't that bad but that's a good story. I did get lost.

BTW: this is a new composition I am playing with. It is based on the musical Fifth. Not sure I understand the music part just yet but I understand the mechanics of the composition. This is just eyeballed but it seems to work well for long format photographs. This may need just a tad more on the right to fully fit but it is close.

“Without great solitude no serious work is possible.”   Pablo Picasso

“Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous—to poetry.”   Thomas Mann

“One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.’’   Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating uon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone—that is the secret of invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born.”   Nikola Tesla

“When I am… completely myself, entirely alone… it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly.”   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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3 comments:

  1. RolandFriday, September 23, 2011 at 2:23:00 AM CDT

    Space to be and room to let thoughts and memories float. I like the scene for this space and quietness, the room, the possibilities and opportunities that arise thanks to the quietness.

    Quiet scenes are quite rare these days. Everyone seems to chase, run, hunt for louder and more extreme shots. Not so this one and I like it a lot for that alone.

    cheers
    ®

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  2. janSaturday, September 24, 2011 at 7:36:00 PM CDT

    I'm with Roland. Build on the theme of your last portfolio challenge, except this time include yourself in the photos. The B&W only reinforces the theme.

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  3. GW-ImagesSaturday, September 24, 2011 at 9:19:00 PM CDT

    Roland and Jan, thank you. I am stumbling around looking for the theme for next year. I just came home two days early from what was supposed to be a mini vacation--too much togetherness for a recluse.

    My favorite quote on solitude is, of course, from Self Reliance: "What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

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