On photographing flowers: Apple falls Close to the Tree
Pretty clear from whence I got my love of photographing flowers. This is a little montage my father put together of what he found growing atop the high-rise he lived in in North Vancouver. He never paid much attention to the equipment, but I think had a very good eye, and paid a lot of attention to composition.
That’s Grouse Mountain in the background. He loved the view. Used to sit out on his balcony every morning, drinking his instant coffee lightened with what we jokingly called ‘the white death,’ some generic brand of coffee mate I think it was. Probably did him in. He died almost two years ago now. I think of him pretty well every day. During the last three or four years of his life we used to talk regularly on the phone. He was hugely supportive of what I was doing with this blog and interviewing authors etc. We used to laugh ourselves to tears almost every time we spoke. I’ve never experienced quite such a connection. We were just able to crack each other up. This is why I like the Auden quote so much:
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator; but among those whom I love, I can: all of them can make me laugh.
I’ve avoided packing a good part of the day, spending the time instead enjoying all the photos I’ve found in various family paper filled chests. These require urgent scrutiny. Much more pressing a task than putting silly old books in boxes (not). Anyhow, I’m motivated, for whatever strange self revelatory reason, to post a selection of photos I’ve come across of my grandmother, and father, up here on the site, so stay tuned…
