perception and the digital camera

Matt Kaarma self portrait

We have as neighbours a wonderful imaginative and wise couple Philomena and Matt.

They turned up yesterday, he carrying several 8 x 10 copies of a portrait, unposed, he had taken of me while we were at their dining table the other day. Which I have used, adding an email address, in the right column of several blogs now.

I commend to you a browse of Matt's pbase photos. Matt for many years taught photography, as a civilian, to the Australian army. He said to me, reflecting on my left-handedness, that he always, with a new class, asked the left-handed to put up their hands and always found them to have a special sense of photography.

Be that as it may, this here is not for bragging...

Matt Kaarma, source here

I spoke of how the digital camera, with its instant feedback, altered my life, my vision. This was a nice bond, a sense of shared vision.


We walk through life with the natural capacity of our brains to screen in this, screen in that, scarcely looking, minds on the next burger or murder.

But then you get your head into a camera and soon enough and also without the camera, the eye begins to see composition, juxtaposition, delight, surprise, and more, not least in the 3 x 4 scale of the camera, in minute things there before us, the mid-ground or great vista.

And occasionally the pose, the majesty, the character of characters. 

Whom one may know or not, need not know to know lots. 

Matt Kaarma, source