Shadow walking
Shadow walking
The last picture taken in the Texas State Capitol grounds last Sunday before turning round and heading back down Congress Avenue.
I like this image and would post it anyway but I am realizing that this blog may take me to places that I did not intend. I am in danger of shadow walking. Everything we do influences everything else we do. Sometimes an action leads us to new places we did not realize we could get to, sometimes it boxes us in without us realizing. Maintaining a photography blog is just such a two edged sword and I fear that I have been allowing it to start cutting in the wrong direction.
In Plato’s cave allegory, the occupants look at the shadows on the wall unaware that they are just projections of the ideal forms behind them on the outside of the cave. I am becoming overly concerned with site traffic and Google Analytics charts; with comment counts, Diggs and syndicate site ranking. Site traffic and comments are the shadows in my cave and, wanting to be liked, my image selection is being influenced by my “market.” I risk posting images that I hope others will like rather than those that interest me the most; I might pass on the difficult and marginally successful experiments in favor of camera club point scoring.
So, I promise to stop looking at the charts. At least until tomorrow.
Michael Paulison:
I have a ‘me and my shadow’ shot of me and my son that I like very much and this reminds me of it. This is a really nice shot and is meaningful to you and also conveys something to us. First, I really like this a lot. Second, we’ve all been there with the traffic and comments. I’ve deleted entire blogs over it. People can tell when you post something you’re excited about. It shows. I want to see the experiments. Good luck. Great Shot!!
October 25, 2008, 9:21 pm