Night-time Gardens

Technology is quite wonderful. As it pertains, in this instance, to photography. And digital cameras. What an amazing advance in picture-taking the digital camera and all its amazing technical attributes represents. At one time to take really quality photographs one had to be inducted into the mystery of light and speed and now, picture-taking is no longer an arcane presentation, one shared by too few, in the production of excellent 'snap' shots, staged and also spontaneous mementos.

Most people took photographs to commemorate events in their lives, whether it was their children growing up, or family vacations, or anniversaries, or any of the number of other situations that people wanted to have a stable photographic reminder of to sustain memories grown faint with time. Not that much skill was required to produce these rather ordinary, albeit to the amateur photographer, extraordinary milestones in one's life. It was left to the deft capabilities and knowledge of professionals to produce extraordinary photos.

And now, anyone can compete with the once-outstanding work of professional photographers. People with few skills but with the advantage of having a digital camera, or a cellphone with a camera are capable of taking photographs and even short videos of events personally memorable, and alternately, newsworthy, if they happen to be in the right place at the right time. Posting one's photographs on the Internet means also that others coursing the Web can see the work of absolute strangers.

And for some people, the advantages of owning and using a tiny, discreet digital camera means they are able to document people and places and events never before imagined. And this includes of course, scenes and landscapes that others might not be particularly interested in, but which are of moment to the photographer. For some, like the writer of this blog, it has meant taking photographs of my garden.

Gardening provides one with a sensual pleasure, along with the pleasure of connecting, year after year, with the fundamental aspects of life; our very primitive and needful reminder of quite importance to us as human beings. We cannot be too removed from nature. We should not imagine ourselves to be. We should be able to reflect and to celebrate on our dependence on nature, and at the same time our self-reliance, using what nature has enabled us to take advantage of.

Although we have travelled far in time from our primal past when we were of necessity close to all things natural and used what we could to protect our immediate environment from the elements we could not control, and learned to recognize and make the most of edible and otherwise useful crops, we still have an innate need to find satisfaction in dabbling in the medium of vegetative growth, admiring the wonderful creations of nature.

We derive immediate and profound satisfaction from so doing. And my camera has enabled me to document the results of my paltry attempts at gardening on a small city lot, in all seasons, all weathers and all times of day and night.