We are at sea, as we have been all night. We are moving some degrees off of the wind heading southeast across the swell. The sky is gray, much as it was in the Atacama. It is that time of year and moisture allows life.
It is still a bit strange to be at sea after our days in the Atacama, back at sea level and feeling the ship move. However, after the ‘high’ Atacama Desert and particularly yesterday in the ‘low’ Atacama Desert, there is a lot of work to be done with many photos to be processed.
Our day is cleverly planned. We are at sea for the entire day, yet we do not sit around and just edit photos or read or write in our journals. There are lectures, there are recaps, and there is a special critique of some of our photos taking place after dinner.
I never submit any of my photos. I only take pictures for my recaps and lectures, although I do try to take the most attractive and effective images possible. I do appreciate that photography is a technical art, but for me most of the technical ends with the camera settings, while the composition and post-production is the art. For me art is not something I can learn from others, I can learn to appreciate it better, but not how to do it. However, I am not an artist and I am certainly not a very good photographer! Yet, I appear to be getting better, by listening to the talks and taking a lot of images, but I am still not ready for ‘show time’. Maybe next year.
Yesterday I achieved a personal ‘best’… over 700 images. I am buried! Here is my favorite image. It is colorful and mostly in focus. But most importantly, aside from the flower, there is a fruticose lichen to the right of the flower, which speaks volumes to me about fog, water, and life. This is the art for me and the burden as well. I need to move on! I need to get these images done because there will be many new ones tomorrow, once we reach the Juan Fernandez Islands.
