Notes from the Fox Den

by Josie Fox
Photograph taken by Josie Fox, June 2015 Photograph taken by Josie Fox, June 2015

Hello from the Fox Den! I hope you each had a wonderful week and I want to thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my column.

I have enjoyed receiving emails and messages in response to some of the topics I have written about and hope to continue receiving your feedback.

Those closest to me know I have a love of landscape photography and that I secretly hope to be ‘discovered’ some day and get the opportunity to travel the world taking pictures.

I think my interest in photography originally peaked when I was in junior high and I saw a calendar with images from Ansel Adams. His black and white images seemed to draw me in and I could stare at them for hours.

Over the years I have developed a fondness for the works of other great artists such as Thomas Heaton, who has an amazing eye for detail and shooting images from unique angles; David Muench, whose 1985 image of a moonrise at the Arches National Park in Utah possesses a simplistic beauty that draws you into the landscape; and Trey Ratcliff, a photographer from Dallas whose pictures from Burning Man are breathtaking and he has an innate talent for editing creating stunning HDR images.

These amazing artists, along with many others, inspired me to finally start playing around with a camera and begin editing my photographs. I am by no means as talented as the individuals that I listed above, but I can see improvement from when I first began to now.

I have graduated from a simple point and click camera to a decent mid-range model that allows me to play around with ISO settings, burst modes, focus tracking, shutter speeds and aperture priority.
It was three years ago when Mr. Fox upgraded my point and click camera to the Nikon I have now. I remember that I couldn’t wait to get out and take some practice shots with it, so off to the footbridge we went.

The first few images seemed so blurry and distorted and I was worried that either something was wrong with the camera, or I had completely misunderstood my manual when it discussed my different settings and that I was doing it all wrong. Turns out everything was fine, my camera lens was just fogged over from the drastic change in temperatures going from the air conditioned vehicle.

Its okay, you can laugh and shake your head at that, I still do every time I think about it.

Despite my less than stellar start, I ended up taking one of my favorite images that day. I’ve decided to share it with you and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do (see insert top right).

When life becomes too hectic or overwhelming, I will wander out and about with my camera and take pictures. Some images turn out amazing (in my opinion) and others not so much. But that is how I have learned, developed and improved.

I truly believe there is beauty everywhere, you just have to look, and to be able to capture a small piece of the beauty that surrounds us and share it with someone else brings a sense of pride and accomplishment with it.

I hope you all have a great week!