Seeing the Sea

When using a wide-angle pinhole camera, as many people do, I get real close to the water. On sandy beaches, I am usually right on the edge and inevitably get wet feet. Losing a few shots to camera shake from soft sand and moving water rushing about the tripod legs is part of the game. Longer focal lengths keep the feet dry and make a tighter image but the bigger boxes or extended bellows get pretty shaky in strong sea winds. I admit there are days I shoot 6 or 8 sheets of film, have a great time, come home, develop the film, and none of the images turn out the way I imagined. They are boring or don't capture the magic of the moment. It wasn't necessarily the technique that was wrong, but rather that the random elements didn't all come together in a harmonious way. It may be that the outer elements weren't right from the start but my desire to be at the beach and practice my "art" was. It is my experience this can also happen with a lens camera.

For me the "decisive" image is born when the inner elements and the outer environment join together as one. As photographic writer Estelle Jussim's titled one of her books, it is "The Eternal Moment".

Photos and Text Copyright Edward Levinson 2002

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