Beating Winter Boredom

Many years ago some friends of mine out east in Ontario began referring to me as a weather wimp. It's sad really, but I can not deny it. I left the relative comfort of Southern Ontario in the late 1990's when I moved to Regina, SK. That first year, I got up for work one morning and discovered that the windchill had reduced the temperature to a bone chilling -53C. When I went outside and took a breath of air, it actually hurt. Imagine that... it hurt to breathe. Why would anyone want to live where that happens?

So the weather wimp became even more wimpy and as I have aged, I find that I spend less and less time outside when it is cold. I do go out on occasion as you may have noticed in my previous post, but I admit it is rare compared to how much I shoot in the warmer months.

Well, what does one do when the shutter finger begins to itch and the siren call of my camera begins to make me crazy? Obviously the answer is to find something to shoot indoors. Well, the siren got to me and I decided that I would shoot something inside where it was safe and warm. I have always admired Edward Weston's photography. If you do not know of Weston, that's OK. He was born in 1886 and died in 1958 as arguably the most influential photographer of the 20th century.

One of his most famous pictures was a simple photograph of a Nautilus sea shell. It has always been a favorite of mine. So I decided that I would obtain one of these shells and produce my own version of his famous photograph. It seemed like it would be fun and the end result would be something I could add to my own collection of work along with a note of course that gives credit to his idea.

So here are the results of making indoor photographs when the weather outside is... frightful.
I called it "Ode To Weston". But I didn't stop there, I also obtained a Nautilus shell that had been cut in half so that one could see the magical chambers within the shell. The chambers are a stunning example of math in nature. The spiral is perfect in every specimen. Absolutely amazing and beautiful to boot.

Weston also shot a shell sectioned much like this one. I had never seen the image until after I created my own called "Nautilus Transect".

So if the weather is bad, stay inside, grab a cup of coffee and photograph something like a sea shell, it certainly was a rewarding way to spend an afternoon when stuck in the house.

Brent