Dogwoods in Spring

It takes some time to distill the essence of a subject into an image that reveals something about it's nature.  Few (if any) times can I ever remember picking up a camera, taking a single photo and saying, "I'm done. I've got it."  I'm not talking composition, technical details, camera angles or anything like that.  It is something more ephemeral than that; something that helps to define the subject or reveal it's character.  And sometimes I can take a hundred photos before I can say, "This is it."

As lovely as cultivated dogwoods are, I think I enjoy the wild ones more.  If you compare the blossoms between a wild and cultivated dogwood, you'll notice the blooms on the wild one are much "floppier," larger and looser.  The little reddish-brown tips left over from the bud stage aren't as noticeable either, so there is more of an impression of white.  The off-colored tip can give the sense that the blossoms are beginning to die and turn brown even on first opening and I think that is what I don't like about them.  Of course, seen from more of a distance, that isn't a problem. 

This wild dogwood sits on the edge of the yard, just inside the wood.

I find I enjoy it more than the cultivated one on the other side of the yard.

It isn't always necessary to place the entire subject within the confines of a photograph.  Leaving part of the content out can create a sense of there being more to see, but not in an dissatisfying manner. This image, in which nothing much is in focus - and, certainly not the blossoms - is near the top of my list of favorite dogwood photos.  It was taken on a rainy day using my piece-of-junk telephoto that can barely acquire focus and I was using a polarizer to cut down on stray light even though it was a cloudy day.  It captures something of the sense of this tree, if not of all dogwoods.  Until I had my eyes examined at age thirteen and was given a prescription for glasses, I thought the entire world looked pretty much like this. I didn't know any better.  I didn't even know I didn't know better.  Maybe that is why I don't mind when an image isn't entirely in focus.