The Enigma of Capturing Light

It is light that colors our vision, our understanding, and allows us to feel the essence of our surroundings. We are able to capture all this through the lens, with the aid of light, into the medium of photography.

“Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.” This is a famous quote by George Eastman, which every photographer must know by heart before stepping into this world of this visual language.

The photograph “Glow” is a simple composition which takes us to the enigma of capturing light, and through this composition, we resumed our photographic journey for the month of September. Photographer Orhan Arkel took this photograph in Istanbul, Turkey. It is an abstract photograph that gave rise to a wonderful enigma. From Turkey, we moved on to Hong Kong, and then to the islands of the gulf of Thailand: Koh Jum and Koh Phi Phi, experiencing them through wonderful composition, and in flame with a heart touching story. It is a journey for better understanding, through photographs.

It’s like a scenic train journey, which has precise points of departure and arrival. Its schedules are fixed, and even when the journey is longer, it possesses a variety of metaphors. Looking through the window of the train, the gaze is always changing; each new station becoming a new point, shifting routes at every new turn. On the journey of Photo of the Day, each photographer comes up with a new perspective and shows us the world that they have discovered, through the enigma of light and composition.

With the photographers Benjamin, Aude, Najeeb, Pavithra, Camilla, Vijaya, Phillip, Fernando, Sanjay, Ersava, Ronnie, Chris,  and Sergio, this journey continued through Yosemite, Antelope Canyon, Lake Sebu in the Philippines, and even to the snowy environment of Madrid in winter, and the North Cape of Arctic Norway.

From Europe to North America and then to the golden horizon of Kerala, in South India, it traveled further north, to Jodhpur, Rajasthan, in the blue-hued “The Colony of the Brahmins”. It swathed itself in green when it traveled to the “Garden of Bliss” in Cameron Highlands, then experienced all the colors of light in the flower market of Bangkok. Then when the moon set over Mt Susitna, Photo of the Day traveled back to Alaska. It then turned back to black and white in Brooklyn Heights, New York. When we ended this month’s journey, we visited the coast of California, and then to the streets of Spain for a new direction.

The Photo of the Day award contest that we started back in June reached its fourth month.  Now the photographs of the third month need your votes to be selected as “Photo of Month” for its fourth month… Please view these photographs by clicking on them. Then re-tweet, and click on the Facebook “Like” button, and let the world know that the essence of composition lies in the eyes of the beholder, who understands the nature of light and portrays that in the Enigma of capturing it.