Creative Prospectives
Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario
>Hi,
I had an interesting day today. I had a professional photographer over at the house on behalf of a Canadian wood magazine making images of a project I am having published. Don is a well known Canadian photographer and doing shots for the magazine today was a favour to the publisher.
During our time together today Don was intrigued by some of my turnings displayed in the house and he asked a lot of questions about them. I am NOT a well defined turner like most of you here are, but Don's keen eye for design instantly picked up on a few things that often are mentioned here and at WoW.
Don commented on shape and flow of line,design elements and wood selection, all this from a NON woodturner/worker. I was surprised and then again not so as I realized his trained eye for shapes and space, all key in his work as a photographer, enabled him to see what was important in a finished shape of work. We continued to talk and he then said he wanted to come back some time when I was turning and wanted to watch and maybe try it out him self.
I was amazed at first in Don's quick preceptions of what makes a turning good or even special. Perhaps we do have many skills taught to us by other disciplines that help us with our passions.
Don taught me today that "learning to see" as a photographer can also help in seeing the shapes we turn that are pleasing. Maybe that is why turners love to photograph their work.
take care,
Jim
