Aims and objectives

I very nearly started today's blog by saying writing that there as many different reasons for taking photographs as there are people taking them.  Then I decided that it was just not true.  There must be millions of people taking photographs, and there certainly can't be millions of reasons for them to do so.  Thinking about it, I have decided that there are probably only a handful of reasons: to act as reminders of places, people or events; as a record of something or someone at a particular point, possibly for comparison with the same at a later date; for artistic reasons.

Some photographers are portraitists and mainly take pictures of people.  If they are true portraitists, they will probably try to capture something of the sitter's personality or character in the picture.  Me, I rarely take pictures of people.  When I do, it is likely to be of the grandchildren and what I am doing is trying to capture moments in their lives that the Old Bat and I can relive and enjoy as memories.  Character rarely gets a look in and is never in my mind as I take those pictures.

My pictures are more likely to be landscapes.  These are partly to act as souvenirs of travel and holidays, partly simply as records, but perhaps more often I try to capture something of the essence of a town, region or country, to produce art.  I can't do anything with paint brushes so I am reduced to capturing scenes by mechanical means.  There are times when I think I have captured something, when I have managed to get the composition right and the picture expressive of something.  It doesn't happen often, which is why I sometimes take seemingly dozens of pictures of pretty much the same scene, day after day, in various lighting conditions.

Sometimes I strike lucky straight away with what is little more than a snap shot. like this picture which I know is not perfect but which to me talks of hot, lazy afternoons and lengthy lunches.  It is Domaine Faverot in Provence, France.