March Week 2 – Around and Under the Board Walk

No wildflowers from this last week because I was “managing” and arm and face worth of poison oak from the previous wildflower trek.  So as to avoid expanding the “big itch” these images are coming to you from “standing positions.”  One of my favorite places for shooting at eye level is around the historic and funky condos of Capitola.   Although every angle brings new possibilities – like looking up!

There is no need to saturate your images here; the condo association’s painting crew does that for you.  So your challenge is to create an image that is not just a record shot of the beautiful or outrageous exterior paint jobs.  A sunny day will do just fine with a deep blue sky and even a few puffy clouds in this location.  The intimate beach village of Capitola on the Monterey Bay just south of Santa Cruz is worth exploring with your camera.  If you get tired of creating your own art there is plenty of galleries and shops in which to enjoy the works of other artists.

I chose to use a fairly wide angle lens with a small aperture (f/22) so that I would have lots of depth of field.  I could practically put my lens on the plastered façade and aim to the sky.  I found that thinking in terms of geometric designs helped me frame my images.  KISS is a term I learned years ago from photographer Carol Leigh – Keep it Simple, Simple!  Or maybe it was “keep it simple stupid.”

Photography is often the art of deselecting objects and colors and subjects to hone in on a strong composition. Focusing on the beauty and power of the simple abstract helps eliminate not only that which is distracting but that which is devastating.

We may not be directly involved but we are effected by such events as the killing of civilians in Afghanistan or Moroccan law that allows a rapist to not be persecuted if he marries (his choice) his victim. We need our art, our song, our dance, or drama, our loves to help us navigate through and beyond the obscenities of destructive systems and situations.  Color and design can be healing and hope-filled.

Near the colorful Capitola condos (beach rental units for the most part) you have the fishing wharf.  From the beach you can walk under it.  It provides great opportunities for thinking about converging lines which are meant to take you somewhere.  Sometimes that somewhere is to a subject where the lines converge (come together) and sometimes it is just the feel of movement to a greater beyond.  It is the later I was hoping for with the picture of these pilings that hold up the wharf.

Take me beyond the worries of the day.  But if you can’t actually get under the board walk – let your/my image take you there!  Just start singing with the Drifters, “Under the Board Walk….”