Gull In Motion
Fall, 2005

Is photography an art form? It depends I guess on what you define as art. A question I've been asking myself since my first finger painting in pre-school. "Look mom!! Brown streaky finger printy art of a cow!!" ... "That's very nice Dougie."

Over the years I've accepted two things about art. First, everyone has their own definition of what it is and while it's great when two people agree on a common definition such agreement is not the norm. Second, for me art is the artist capturing an emotional moment and being able to share that emotion with me through his or her medium. Whether it's a digital or analogue photograph, a painting, an addictive tune by the French pop star Alizee or the CBC Radio Orchestra giving a stellar rendition of the second movement of Beethoven's 6th symphony to me it's all art. All of those media can capture the artist's emotion and act as a conduit to share it with me its consumer.

Here's a seagull in full glide-mode over the rich and varied orange hues of Sunset Beach Park, downtown Vancouver, bathed in the warm glow of a fall westcoast sunset. The cool thing about this shot is that apart from the regular digital cleanup and slight sharpening that I do to all my digital photographs no other manipulations were employed. What you see in the photo is pretty much what I saw through the view finder of my Nikon D100. The question is can you feel what I did when I took the shot?

Is it art in other words?

For me, the artist, the answer is an easy yes. Each time I look at this photo I can feel the gull skipping on the end day thermals as she glides across pure golden warmth. I can feel the sun on my face and almost hear the sound of her wing on the wind.

And I worked hard to get the shot. I could feel the moment was perfect, the light was just right and the gulls were having enough fun swooping and climbing to give me enough time, light and their varied antics to get at least one good shot. I pulled out all the technical stops and eventually captured just the moment I wanted - this one.

Art - plain and simple.