15 years old in flickryears since January 08. I am or have been a fine artist, graphic designer, landscape designer. My photographs are simply another medium. All of the same principles apply. I use the camera to try to "see" the way I see, though sometimes it doesnt turn out that way, and that is often the hoped-for surprise. Though I may alter the photos a bit after taking * ( cropping and contrast) I don't usually go in for exaggerated color. I try to present what's out there, just perhaps seeing it in a different way. * The exception to this is those which are intentionally softened ( no, it's not an inability to get a sharp focus - it's my intent) - in order to give the result a painterly quality. I love color and light. My biggest inspiration is the seaandsky : an everchanging glorious palette that we shouldn't hope to, or try to, improve upon.

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To see through a framed lens is not confining, but the opposite. It presents new opportunities to see what is out there in undiscovered and normally overlooked ways. To experience the world as “ a photographer”, is to be constantly open to what is presented before us every day as we walk through the world. It’s a chance to try and capture in a new way that sometimes small or “unseen” thing, pull it out from drowning in a sea of visual and contextual stimuli vying for our attention, and make us sit up and take notice of the wonder that is present everywhere.

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For a peek at a selection of my photos seen on black, go here.

(this is set on 'random' , for fun. You can switch to either "most interesting " or any of the different sets from the menu at the top of this linked page...)

To view my favorite photos from other flickr members on black, go here.

I think our faves can tell as much, if not more , about us than our own pictures. Even given that there may be many reasons for the choices, not always apparent.

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Sorry to have to add, but: anyone who marks me as a contact and has no profile, no photos available to me, a generic buddy icon, no favorites, no other contacts, etc, will be blocked.

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All rights reserved © Belinda Cyckevic Gordon

All photos in my stream may not be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or uploaded in any way without my permission.

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What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.

~ John Updike

I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant

I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility.

Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite.

~ Bertrand Russell

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.

~ Henry David Thoreau

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.

~Dorothea Lange

We don't take pictures with our cameras, we take them with our hearts and we take them with our minds, and the camera is nothing more than a tool.

~Arnold Newman

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where others see nothing

~Camille Pissarro

“No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.”

~ Ansel Adams

"I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship."

—Louisa May Alcott

and last but not least:

"Carolina beach music, is the holiest sound on earth."

~ Pat Conroy, from his novel Beach Music

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