I like the connection photography has to writing. The old saying is a cliché and as well worn as the running shoes I wear to cut the grass (I’ve had them since my daughter was in her stroller. She is now out of university. They now have 0 traction… the bottoms are softer than a baby’s bottom). ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. As old and haggard as it is, it’s still 100% true. I often take a photo and just contemplate it for a moment… and then write freefall until I run out of things to say. Sometimes I actually get up to–or even surpass–the obligatory thousand word count.
It’s a stroke of luck that my son fancies himself a photographer. He’s only 12, but he just loves snapping the world around him. Here’s a photo prompt. He took this as we were driving into the city. His hockey team had a practice on the Air Canada pad with a Leaf training coach (he’s so frickin’ lucky!).
It doesn’t matter where your writing takes you when you start out with a photograph. It could be a poem or a novel that develops out of the freefall. The thousand words are always a blessing. Thank God for photography. Thank God for 12 year-old sons who like to capture everything they see.
ETA: Here’s a picture of my son’s field of dreams. Well, the building that encases his field of dreams. There’s no green inside… only ice. He took this from the parking lot across the street before going in for his practice.
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Cool pic. Would be interesting to see what it inspires.
That’s an excellent photograph. Geometry was never my forte in high school, but there is certainly some very lovely geometry happening in this picture. The needle-looking building is just off-center; if you stare at its rounded (hamburger-esque) structure, the clouds will almost look like they’re moving.
Was your vehicle moving towards the left or right of the image?
Thank you, both.
That building is the CN Tower in Toronto. We were just coming up an off-ramp from the Don Valley Parkway… heading downtown. I was veering to the right, but basically driving straight on to it. My son was in the passenger seat so he would have been aiming to his left… but it was taken out the windshield.
I love taking pictures out of the windshield (and other windows)…with a disposable camera.
I don’t look through the viewfinder, though. I just approximate and click.
It works surprisingly well.
I hope your son continues his shooting inspiration. He’s got a good eye and or hand (holding digital cameras still can be tricky!).
That is a good picture. He is still at the point where he is using the camera as his eye… but he’d probably like to try that random click thing. (-;
If you like photography, you will probably enjoy two of the blogs in my blogroll. BEST LIFE EVER and BEST LIFE EVER PHONO. The first one is a woman talking about her life and the things she loves about it… through photography. The second is her husband’s blog and it is ONLY photographs taken on his cellphone… hence, phono. They take some pretty awesome shots.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll definitely check them out.