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A Journey of Photographic Discovery Written by Bill Moore / Moore Photos   Wednesday, 23 November 2011 Here's a very basic photo, with added contrast but minimal color saturation. I grew up with a camera in my hands, starting with a little box camera I bought at the local grocery store. Here, minimal saturation, but the blue sky is reflected in water on the sand. Those pictures, like newspaper clippings and other parts of my life, have been lost along the way, back and forth across this country. In this picture, there is the blue sky, but we have definitely added some color saturation. And the photography for a long time was a hobby, a thing of haphazard snapshots . . . until I got to college. As the tide went out, the bottom leveled out and I was able to catch this leaf and its dark shadow. There, while the Managing Editor of The New Hampshire, I saw the need for a better camera, and more skill to shoot it properly. Nick Wallner, the Photography Editor, took me aside with a Pentax single lens reflex camera, let me shoot a roll of film, then took me into the paper's darkroom and we processed the film . . .. WHOOSH: Here, we slowed the camera down to catch the water moving sand down the beach! On that roll were photos I had shot of my daughter taking her first steps. Here's a similar photo, but notice how the action of the water has layered the sand colors. After college, I became the sports editor for a small newspaper in New Hampshire, and I bought a Konica, took a course with the Photo Editor there . . . and under Larry McDonald's mentorship at Lebanon College , learned some more . . . and I've been shooting on nearly a daily basis ever since. I call this Walking the Dog, but one of my buddies insists it be called Dante's Inferno! In New Haven I became the Motorsports Editor, and in order to have pictures to go with my reports on NASCAR, SCCA and IMSA racing, I had to take them myself. Finding interesting shapes that go with sand etchings is important, like this low-flying UFO! And, I'm here to tell you that being a photo-journalist isn't easy, because you can't take notes while shooting a camera . . . you have to do one or the other, in hurried flurries of shooting and writing. Starting with gray, we increase the saturation -- never knowing exactly what we'll get! Ultimately the journey took me to California for 25 years, where the discovery continued. The beach, though, is more than sand . . . and I try to incorporate whatever I manage to find! Now, back in Kittery, Maine . . . I've been busy. As part of starting an animal photography business, I went out of my way to shoot a series of dogs, sitting pretty and on the run. Here, we started with a bold image that stands out on its own, and added color. But the other day, while at Fort Foster, I went away from my usual course around the place, and discovered something on the beach . . . sand etchings. I don't know why this happens, but there's gold in that sand that can be revealed! As the high tide drops off to low tide, the movement of water leaves unique lines in the sand. Doing the Slide: It looks like this leaf is trying to make a break for it! I took photos of those lines with my Canon 50D digital camera, using the 300 millimeter lens I normally have on the camera to shoot dogs with. While there is some mystery, it all goes back to the basics, light and shadow. The sand is gray, and so when I got home, I downloaded the images, looked them over, and enhanced them . . . first to bring out black lines in the sand. Every picture is different, and a single photo can have many looks depending on color saturation. And then, I saturated the images with more color . . . as you can see. Rocks get in the way, changing the way the water flows back to the sea. Now, the question is this: Would you like to buy a picture or two? See http://www.pawsandprints.us/   or call me at (207) 703-2086. Last Updated ( Sunday, 08 January 2012 )   < Prev   Next > [ Back ]