"Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures." - 365 Project, Day 51

I was talking to a co-worker, who's also a musician, and he said he didn't understand the concept of DJing, because all the DJ is doing is either playing songs by other people or sampling sounds that are impersonal and may have been recorded by someone else.  We didn't get a chance to finish our conversation because busy got in our way but it was a very nice conversation.

From his point of view, DJing would be somewhat impersonal (he, by the way, writes his own music and lyrics).  From my point of view, I don't think that matters if the DJ can convey the message they want to convey.  I've always said instrumental music is slightly on the tougher side of the fence because there are no lyrics.  It's easy to say what you feel through lyrics, because you can say (either literally or symbolically) how happy or sad (usually sad) you are.  With instrumental music, it's more of a challenge given you don't have lyrics to convey easy meaning.

Photography is, I find, much the same.  How do you convey happiness, or sadness, or disappointment, or something more vague, such as stillness?  Mood generally affects creativity and if one is, say, sad, how would the pictures taken differ from when one is happy?  I met up with a friend for a few hours today and had a great idea for a shot.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get what I wanted for reasons I don't want to expand upon right now, but the point is that if my head the picture conveyed happiness very well, even though she may not have shown pure smileyness in her face.  Beyond that, is there an easy way to tell the world how you feel at the moment you snapped a picture?

Let's see if we can tell what these photos are feeling.

Frank

His note: It was raining silly this morning (of course) and I really didn't want to go outside to get a photo. Looking outside from the protection of my window I noticed that on the balcony ramp a water droplet would periodically form and drop from its corner. I tried to get the perfect shot of the droplet at the moment it released from the ramp. I tried and I tried, even tried to count the seconds between the droplets but the wind made the drops fall so inconsistently that it got frustrating. Sooooooooooo this is the best my patience allowed me to do.

Mandy

Her note: The book I just finished. I'm sad it's over.

Shannon

Her note: On my bus ride home I noticed a wall full of colors. This picture would have been better if I had used my camera instead of my blackberry.

My picture

The view from my balcony is not stellar, but when it gets rainy the layers of mist/clouds forming in the horizon form a nice view.  I like the varying levels of clarity as you go farther back.

Generally in film, rain signified sadness, and though that was my initial intention when I wanted to take a picture of the outside world today, I ended with a layered look I prefer.  I'll see if the same happens tomorrow.