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Canon Image Challenge | all galleries >> CIC 176 Water >> Eligible > Snow Steps
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21-MAR-2018 Terry Beck

Snow Steps

Philadelphia, PA

Taken with a Samsung cell phone from my hotel window,
during the Public Libraries Association Conference.

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Canon Image Challenge29-Mar-2018 03:24
What a timely and excellent capture. A perfect example of leading lines in a photo.
On top of that - there is a story here that our mind can easily see and imagine.

Jim
Terrylibrarian 27-Mar-2018 14:57
This is Charlie's wife--a little background information might help with this one. I was in Philadelphia for a conference this week. And I brought along a nasty case of bronchitis, so I tried to stay in the hotel room as much as possible and avoid sharing the germs. The snow had already begun when I got there and I looked out the window and saw the steps. I took the picture to remember the image and to share with my FB friends whose flights had been cancelled that day. I don't bring a camera with me to conferences, so my cell phone was the only option. Do I wish that I'd brought my 80D? Of course!
Charlie Beck27-Mar-2018 14:26
Thanks for your thoughts, Trav. My understanding is that this was a spur of the moment capture, with no intent to create art. When I first saw it (initially as a Facebook post), I asked her to let me submit it on this challenge.
Canon Image Challenge27-Mar-2018 11:21
I like this, I honestly like it a lot....but since this is a place of lessons, let me venture a few;

1. This is an important picture

2. It should have been seen as an important picture (it really is)

3. and as such, this should have been viewed on the screen and probably zoomed in on...

4. Because it is less clear than it could, should have been. This could have been shot multiple times...until as good as the cell phone could have been produced had been produced, captured.

^^^^

I think I am almost advancing a responsibility towards our art...yikes, am I really going to say this?!? Because you are a good guy I have to logically presume that she is likewise a good and smart woman...otherwise she wouldn't be your wife.

With that out of the way, let me advance this startling proposition;

You wife had no duty to us to present and post the finest possible version of this scene.

She had no duty even to herself, for her ego or her artistic sensibility or whatever, to produce the image in as fine a form as possible.

No.

Your wife, she had a duty flowing from the scene to inside herself to produce and respect what is being presented in as fine a form as possible, (once she decided to take the picture...in that instant, the duty was imposed).

So the question being presented is...where is the locus of the Art? Is it in the Artist as is usually presumed, or, is it in the subject, the scene, the paint, the linseed oil, the essence of whatever is found and requests to be seen, to be appreciated...

This is fine image and maybe it could not be finer, I could just be wrong that it could have been made better...shooting out of a hotel window presents real challenges...that maybe could not have been overcome.

But this scene will not replicate itself soon...it will vanish like tears in the sea. We need to treat our life and our moments with respect.

(Thanks for the opportunity to think this through a little, for sparking my mind on this subject...I don't mean this harshly...but I may use this line of argument to other people so it is important to get it written out, {and saved}).

Very Best Wishes, Traveller
Canon Image Challenge27-Mar-2018 03:15
I like single set of footprints in sand or snow. This reminds me of the tracks my slue footed son leaves when he walks in fresh snow. Paul.
Charlie Beck27-Mar-2018 01:45
I posted this on my wife's behalf, because I thought it told such a beautiful story.

Regards,
Charlie