“Wildlife photography is the ultimate catch and release!”
“A photographic image, digital or other, is like a child. You should nurture it when composing and you give it life when firing the shutter release. Discipline it, as required, and provide a guiding hand when editing with digital images or when developing film. But in the end, just like a child who has grown to an adult, it should stand on its own, independent and productive. After years of viewing it, an image may even become a close friend, if you are most fortunate. And if the natural order of life prevails, as it should, you will expire before the beauty of your image does.”
“Keeping your camera’s lens and viewfinder, if available, clean may do more to improve your photography than any other knowledge or equipment acquired. You may possess immense comprehension of, and experience in, photography; but if your lens is dirty and smudged, images will suffer significantly.”
“A well exposed, well composed image makes your eyes smile.”
“Great images steal love’s beauty but for a fraction of a second or, in some cases, for only a few minutes, just a fleeting moment in time. But the return of that beauty through such an image, like some fine art, may illuminate the souls of many for posterity.”
Ansel Adams was once quoted as saying: “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”
My complementary quote on the subject of focus: “The second worst result is having a fuzzy image of a sharp concept.”
“Photography is as close to capturing and recording God’s bounty as is humanly possible. Photography does not require faith … It instills faith!”
“Light is the essence – and the arbiter – of photography. With viewers of photographic images, as the jury, light is most often the judge.”
Clean your camera and lenses, as if they were your children … perhaps even better.”
Quotes in italics above were first published in Amazon Workshop “Quick Start Guides for Amazon Photographers” Copyright © 2013 Don Mercer, Rustic 41 Creations; Produced for Amazon Workshop, with editing provided by Christa Dillabaugh, Education Director for Amazon Rainforest Workshops and Co-leader of the 2013 Educator Academy.
Past interests include skydiving, with eight jumps many years ago. Making a few jumps was a good insurance policy when flying aircraft with ejection seats. Food for thought:
“Skydiving is so much safer than scuba diving, because there are no man-eating birds.”
“Every day is a homework assignment for your next day in life.”
“With the Amazon cast in its role as ‘the lungs of the earth,’ we are well on the path toward approaching planetary emphysema.”
On the debate between Creationism versus Evolution: “The verdict is in – God created evolution. … No debate needed!”