Tim found me photographing the old car that is the “cover” shot for my “Automotive Expression” gallery. (Click on thumbnail at bottom to see it.) This picture of me is Tim’s first image in the first of seven galleries he is posting on our Death Valley trip we shared in the spring of 2007. ( http://www.pbase.com/mityam/eastofvalley06 )

Tim shot this image through a side window of the old car I was photographing. He says in his caption that he sees this image as “a metaphor for image making – it is the artist trying to create clarity and interest out of the blur of the environment.” I left this comment in response: “As artists, we are all seeking clarity. I find clarity through abstraction – taking away, rather than adding. That’s what I am doing here, and that’s what you are doing here as well.”

(To some it might appear as if I am prayerful. Actually, the way I hold my camera as I am shooting is very revealing. Most photographers shoot with the camera to their eye. I shoot with the camera at my waist. I am studying the changes in exposure I get – in real time – as I scan the highlights and shadows on the old rusting car in active spot metering mode, abstracting the subject down to an essence. My camera, a Leica V-Lux-1, is letting me “paint with light” – showing me, as I work, exactly what my image is going to look like in terms of light, shadow, and color emphasis before I make the image, rather than after. The flip out “live-view” LCD viewfinder I am looking down into here is an essential creative tool. Without it, I would be shooting blind.)