Solitude

Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone. ~Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now

It is not often I get the opportunity to be alone. It's not that I go out of my way to avoid people, okay, truthfully sometimes I do, but I think I am at my best when given time just to be with myself.

Photographs are my escape. It's amazing all the places I can travel in my mind. Often I just sit down at my computer, dial up a site like Webshots and select a location.

What for me makes a great album of travel pictures is variety. I want to see various landscapes, along with macros, and sunsets, and wildlife, and maybe a picture of yourself. Videos are also a nice addition. Sound conveys so much more of a location. Another key is details. And by details, I'm not talking about the EXIF data. No, I love to read the stories and notes about the trip. The information should be concise, but entertaining. I want to know something about the time of day, location, and how you got there, or what drew you to take that image.

This image was taken at a nearby reptile zoo. It was in an area nearby talking people and yelling children. But I remember when I took it that I was struck by the stillness and silence in that particular spot.

A Silent Place, Gatorland, Orlando, Florida

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that's where I renew my springs that never dry up. ~Pearl Buck

I find that my ability to convey the quietness of a place, is usually the result of finding the right composition for that location. I am always preaching about composition. Good composition can make or break an image. It more important than lighting to me. You can have great light but it be a boring image. But in reverse, you can have an interesting image with not so good light.

Knowing what composition to use, is the result of many hours of "seeing" like a camera. By this I mean practice at composing scenes without your camera in your hand. After a while it becomes like 2nd nature to know where to stand and what angle will show that scene to its best advantage.

God's Cathedral, Bald Cypress

When we cannot bear to be alone, it means we do not properly value the only companion we will have from birth to death - ourselves. ~Eda LeShan

I always say that you have to "be yourself" before you can be anything else. I am the best wife and mother when I know who I really am inside. This means taking my faults and flaws with the rest and being able to forgive "me" when I make mistakes. I then have more confidence in my reactions and less doubt in myself.

Green, Tenoroc Trail, Saddle Creek Park, Lakeland, Florida

---------------------------------------------

Suzanne Williams Photography
Florida, USA

Suzanne Williams is a native Floridian, wife, and mother, with a penchant for spelling anything, who happens to love photography.