Photography by
Janise Witt
What You Envision - Together We Can Create
I love nature and always have and I enjoy a morning process which enables me to meditate, so I may contemplate my day, write into my morning thoughts and insights and then walk in nature for at least an hour a day.
People will ask, how do you tap into your creativity and my answer is always - go into nature and connect and for me that's usually with my beautiful dog, Amadei and God and the angels.
Kodachrome - The Film of Life
I had the wonderful opportunity to watch an empowering movie a couple of nights ago - "Kodachrome" - about a father who has lost touch with his son and wants to reconnect with him as well as get some Kodachrome film developed; for the lab is the last lab standing that processes Kodachrome film; and it is about to close - lots of closures in this film.
You don't know until the very end that the father was a famous photographer and the film he wanted to have developed was of him and his son when his son was just a young toddler. At the end of the movie you see still photographs taken on Kodachrome film - projected one by one - and you are truly blown away - why? They make you stop - they draw you in to life in a vibrant way, whether on an emotional level or because you have the opportunity to explore a different culture.
What flooded in upon me was this was my time - I grew up and lived in the film era, where you had to be really present and focused on every aspect of the image you were capturing, together with technical aspects of your camera so you could capture just the right photographic image. Kodachrome slide film, as was true of other slide films, was very exacting - there was very little latitude for poor exposure; you'd just end up with a bad image that really couldn't be corrected with Photoshop because there wasn't such a thing.
There was a wonderful aspect to my time in film. Even though you became experienced at exposure and framing your shot, there was that wonderful anticipation when you picked your slides up at the lab to peruse your creations and also enjoy some surprises.
I love digital and I feel my film background actually has helped me to be a better photographer. Yet, I feel if there's one thing I could say about creating more vibrant and full textured images, it's to be present and conscious; really focus in on what you're trying to capture and ask why. What happens is that each image is truly a moment in time which captures that full memory of when it was taken and in a beautiful way!