I am a details person. In photography especially, I go tight, seek patterns, clean and decisive, no clutter.

I remember when I was young, I had a camera, but no car (priorities, right?). What I did have was the Cataract Gorge, a decent photographers training ground just over my back fence. It was not buffet of options, so sometimes a little stream had to stand in as a raging river and water fall (can be done).

Many rolls of Kodachrome or Fuji Velvia were exposed under ferns, through trees downward onto leaf details. I looked for the wonder of the small, the details we all tend to walk past (or on/through/over).

I can close in tightly with a long lens and do regularly, but most often I find myself compelled to move closer.

To clarify though, I have never been a huge macro shooter. My desire to take artistic images as opposed to reference level ones, negates the need to get that close. M43 lenses can usually get to a quarter or half life size with little effort, which is enough.

Revisiting my Japan files, the slightly surprisingly joyous rediscovery of my garden images in particular, I am struck by the change in my own processes. The reality is, detail chasing requires a little exploration, intrusion even. In our wilderness and semi wild park lands, this is accepted. In Japan it is definitely not ok.

My habits changed, seemingly unnoticed from shrinking my world by going to it, to defining medium to larger spaces more succinctly from a forced distance. You always have to shoot from the pathway, no exceptions. I did it, but did not feel the excitement I usually would, so I tended to dismiss the images at the time.

In short, this photographer has discovered the medium-large landscape years after practicing the form by necessity. That necessity breeding semi reluctant adaption with an heavy dose of “might as well, because I may not get back”.

I suppose the processes are identical, just the perspective was changed. The odd thing though is I consistently took the images even though they failed to impress immediately or in the shorter term afterwards. They seemed to need to stew for a while, waiting for a new me and a new processing paradigm to appreciate them.

I am never going to be the magnificent vista, big sky, foreground to horizon image maker. That has never been me and is done so much better by so many others, but there is a middle ground.