More and more when I go out with my camera these days, I'm try to look at
"appearances" rather than just looking at "objects".

What's the difference?

Well, consider this scene, for example. The objects here might be the same
in 5 minutes, or 30 minutes, or even hours from now. The objects themselves
don't much change. But the light changes... and so the appearance of the
scene changes...

And why is that an important consideration for a photographer?

Because a change of lighting (and therefore a chance of appearance) can most
often times mean the difference between a good shot and a lousy one.

Just five minutes after I made this image, for example, the way the light
was coming through the trees completely shifted and completely changed what
was lit and what was in shadows. From a photographic standpoint, the whole
"look" of this particular scene disappeared within moments -- one moment it
had great appearance (making me keen to photograph it) and a few moments
later the way the light was striking it made it seem otherwise bland
and ordinary ... something not exciting to photograph at all.

And that's why, at least for me, paying attention to "appearances" rather
than just looking at "objects" is so important -- a poor rendering
of light on subject matter makes even the most extraordinary objects seem
bland and mundane. And yet a moment of well rendered light can make
even the ordinary objects or scenes look seemingly extraordinary. It's all
about the light, or more to the point, (and this is perhaps what doesn't
get said often enough...) it's all about how the light renders subject
matter appearance.

And so that's what I'm trying to become more aware of these days...
trying to find the extraordinary within the ordinary by paying attention
not just to "objects" but rather paying attention to "appearances" --
how things look under a given set of lighting conditions.

And it's not so much about being artsy-fartsy, or mystic, or getting
into the zen of the here and now of life, but rather that in the most
practical terms, making better images is (at least in part), a product
of better seeing the world around us the way our camera sees it.

Anyway, humbly, I'm still working on this whole thing of better trying to
view "appearances" rather than just looking at "objects". And admittedly,
I still haven't yet fully mastered it; which is to say that I'm still
not yet quite at the point of being able to flick that way of thinking
on and off as easily as a light switch. But I'm getting there slowly.
And hopefully it's starting to show up in the images themselves.

For whatever help any of that monologue might
be to anyone else's shooting efforts,
C J