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A friend of mine made a remark about the fact that many of my photos have some kind of (sometimes hidden) inner pattern; her remark was made about this image (it is harder to see in this small size...),but could be made about many others. (In particular, I'm not so enthusiastic about this image myself...)

Summer green

She was curious to know if I consciously look for these patterns, or not. This got me thinking about how do I take pictures - do I carefully plan each shot, or do I simply shoot away, hoping that eventually some of the shots come out good?

The way I normally take photos is to visually scan the surroundings, until something catches my eye. Then I start playing with it, sometimes carefully framing things, sometimes shooting quite rapidly (especially if it is some transitory situation where I have little control). But I almost never go out to shoot a specific image, even when I'm going to known places (e.g., monuments, tourist attractions, neighborhoods, etc...), and often end up picturing something completely different (e.g., walls and fixtures in museums), like in this (shot in the Museé D'Orsay)

Orsay wall detail I

Orsay Abstract VI

So I try to keep myself open to any opportunity that arises. However, some times I surprise myself at having captured more than what I consciously thought - I only really see it later while processing the photo. A recent example is this image, shot in the greek island of Hydra, near Athens

At first I thought this lady was simply looking at passers by, as the island is full of tourists walking about; this was a bright, colorful day. But then I noticed the framed photo inside the house, visible just to the left of her head. I immediately imagined that this must be her husband, perhaps already deceased - which would fit quite well with the expression of sadness and distance in her face, and the empty chair on her right... I have no way of telling if this is actually the case, but I feel the image is quite poignant, simbolically illustrating such sad periods in one's life - the loss of a dear one.

None of these considerations went through my mind when I took the picture, there was simply something that attracted me to the scene, and made me photograph it; only later did I see this hidden symbolism in it. Perhaps, at some unconscious level, I did see it, and I assume this is often the case with other images as well.

So my "take home lesson" is, let my subconscious mind free, it will see (in the sense of identifying) the images much better than if I try to consciously look for it. It is an exercise, which sometimes makes me annoying to be around (my wife complains constantly) just because I'm not "paying attention" to what others are saying or doing - I am in my own space, even if physically next to them. And I often wander around in unexpected directions, often different than everybody else (see this blog entry).

--- PS ---

The following quote  (thanks to Josie Soho)

"Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious - Jean Cocteau"

summarizes well what I am trying to say (I photograph also as a way of artistic expression - see this discussion). Although I emphasized the unconscious part of the process, there is also a conscious part, which happens mostly post-facto, in the "digital darkroom".

So, here is my question to you - how do you photograph? Do you have similar experiences? Let me know!