The Blog At Ainsworth Images

Wednesday,  December 28, 2011

“Year’s end,

all corners

of this floating world, swept.”  ~ Basho

I have always been enamored of the Japanese Haiku. To me it seems like the purest of all poetry, simple in nature and yet very profound. So much said with so few words, so much feeling packed into such a condensed package. I try to achieve the same thing in my images. Some call it minimalist, I prefer “simple elegance” because it is so much more descriptive, like Haiku itself. Call it what you may, it is what appeal most to me when creating my body of work for it represents my purest vision.

This little poem is full of subtle meaning for the new year, sweep out the old, be ready for the new and don’t take anything too seriously. It also has a feeling of being at peace with the past and a looking forward to what is to come.

These beach houses, on the bluff, overlooking the sea have that lonely feeling the New Year seem to bring, coming as it does at the start of winter. Not an unpleasant feeling, but kind of a completeness mingled in with the solitude.

Enjoy,
Tom

Friday,  December 16, 2011

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”  ~ Proverbs

It is easier to “look“ than to “see.” To see takes inner vision as well as outer vision. Then it takes skill and training to be able to print your vision to paper, but all the skill in the world will not make your images vital and alive, you must have the inner vision to pull this off! Inner vision comes with involvement with what you are imaging, one must care about what they choose to represent, to enter into a kind of relationship with that subject then the magic happens. Then your skill will make it come alive on screen and in print and your vision will travel out into the world for others to enjoy.

Look at these kids having a great time dancing with the waves on a very cold day in November, off the Oregon coast. How good it is to be young!

Enjoy,
Tom

Wednesday,  December 14, 2011

“You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.”  ~ Paulo Coelho

You can also become blind by seeing the same landscape as unchanging. A perfect example of this for me is Haystack Rock at Canon Beach, Oregon, a monolith towering 235 feet over the beach. For awhile, each time I would go back I would say to myself; “It will be difficult to get anymore images, I have done it so many times.” Yet each time it has surprised me, until I came to understand it was quite like the moon. It has endless moods, it is almost like a planet, it gives shelter and sustenance to a wide variety of lifeforms and it exudes a power that seems to capture all who visit. I am now quite certain I will never tire of capturing its many moods and apparitions.

Here is Haystack exhibiting one of her many auras.

Enjoy,
Tom

Friday,  December 9, 2011

“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”  ~ Dr Seuss

That’s December, looks like night at 2 in the afternoon! Still, beauty abounds and creatures are about, the air if fresh and if you bundle up the outdoors has magic.

This is an image from early Spring, but December is in its heart.

Enjoy,
Tom

Wednesday,  December 7, 2011

“The loneliness you get by the sea is personal and alive. It doesn’t subdue you and make you feel abject. It’s stimulating loneliness.”  ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I never tire of the seashore, especially the lonely ones like you find in the North West or in Maine. I find it more than stimulating, I find it full of an unnamed power that replenishes my heart and soul, that makes me whole when tired of the constant demands of civilization and all its distractions. In truth, if fills me with a unabashed joy of being.

This was a bit of a special moment by the sea.

Enjoy,
Tom

Friday,  December 2, 2011

“The important thing is to remember what most impressed you and to put it on canvas as fast as possible.”  ~ Pierre Bonnard

This is the challenge to the Fine Art Photographer, to “remember what most impressed you.” and then to get your image into post and make it sing with your vision. This takes many skills, both with the equipment used to capture the image and with the software you use to edit and refine it. Art is a demanding mistress, yet you will seldom find an artist who would give up trying to express their quest for the perfection that will always elude even the very best! There is hardship along the way but few other journeys are as joyous an adventure.

I tell myself that I will someday tire of capturing Haystack Rock in Canon Beach, Oregon, but her moods are endless and she captures me again and again.

Enjoy,
Tom

Wednesday,  November 30, 2011

“To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.”  ~ Ansel Adams

Anyone can “see” and photograph the surface of things, it takes an artist, using his/her vision to see “beneath the surfaces and record the qualities” therein. The artist must develop and deepen their own being before they will be able to capture truly wonderful images with their cameras and software, images which will be able to capture the viewers hearts and spirits.

This “grandfather” tree towers above the rest of the trees in this stand of forest, a testament to perseverance and endurance. It stands just below Mt. St. Helens‘s south slope.

Enjoy,
Tom

Friday,  November 18, 2011

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul.”  ~ John Muir

All I can say to this is “Amen.” Quite often I feel the need to escape in the healing presence of nature, to bring my restless “everyday soul“ back to center and the peace that is its birthright. That’s one of the wonderful things about this profession, it can be my “work” to heal in the bosom of nature!

I love this stairway, it seems to lead straight into the heart of nature.

Enjoy,
Tom

Wednesday,  November 16, 2011

“In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.”  ~ Alfred Stieglitz

I think this is true of the arts in general. If we succeed in capturing the hearts and emotions of the viewer with our image, a new reality is created, sometimes more powerful than that seen with the eyes at the very spot of the capture, because our image also contains all the hidden things that lie just beyond the physical realm, such as our feelings, vision and emotions as we gazed out upon the scene.

This is an image that was “real” for just a very short period of time, then it was gone. Talk about right place, right time!

Enjoy,
Tom

Friday,   November 11, 2011

“How beautifully leaves grow old.  How full of light and color are their last days.”  ~ John Burroughs

If we all could age as gracefully as leaves in Autumn! Such a lovely time of year, one can almost forget that soon Old Man Winter will be knocking at the door with his cold breath and dark nights.

Here is a little abstract image of mine that evoke the beauty of the season.

Enjoy,
Tom