Daffodils along West Cove Road, McLemore Cove, Walker County, Georgia.
Do you look deeply at your photographs after you've made them to see what they are truly about? I'm not talking about things like composition, exposure, focus, and such, although those are necessary and important. I'm talking about meaning and message. Those elements are often not evident at first glance. We may have to live with a picture for a while to understand its full meaning. There may be much more there than we saw when we snapped the shutter. (Although sometimes we feel it without realizing what we're seeing.)
I have a number of photographs printed on canvas in 24 by 36-inch format which I hang over my fireplace and switch out according to the season. This one, as you were probably able to guess, is my spring picture.
When I made this photograph I was deliberately looking for something that said "Spring." I made quite a few photos on my farm and around the Cove, but this is the one I chose. I like the picture very much, obviously, but I had never looked at it deeply to understand what it was that I liked.
Until . . . a few weeks ago, I was sitting on my sofa, looking at the photograph with my mind in idle, when it began to come alive to me. There is incredible life and action in that still picture. Tiny golden trumpets looking to their creator, fairly dancing as they blow their hearts out in praise to the God of the universe.
Study your photographs. There may be a lot more "there" there than you realize. As the great New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a whole lot just by lookin'."
The photo: Olympus E-M5 digital with the Panasonic Lumis 14-140mm lens (probably the most useful combination I've ever owned. Should have kept it.)
Please Note: My granddaughter Jennifer set me up with my own domain for this blog so my web address is now alifeinphotography.com. The blogspot identifier is no longer needed.
If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/
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Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
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