It rained today in various forms. There was the torrential, tropical rain, there was the gusty rain that knocked over one of my plants, and then there was a drizzle. Each was punctuated by a clearing of tropical sun and humidity.

It was wonderful.

The beauty sometimes can’t easily be conveyed, but after a good rain at the right hour and the light is just so, it’s worth casting your eyes about, focusing on different things to find a perspective, something that frames well, something that tells it’s own story.

It’s the same with most other things too. One of the things Instagram and other aspects of social media have enabled is creating an artificial image. Artificial intelligence tools like image generation are much the same. They’re about filling frames.

The social media ‘influencer’ generally masters illusion within a frame that doesn’t truly represent what’s going on out of the frame. The artificial intelligence doesn’t have anything outside of the frame. What I think of as real photography, in general, is less so. It’s less contrived, but it, too, tends toward artificiality in some regards.

The world we live in, though, is not artificial. It’s definitely artificially influenced at this point, but – water drops on a rainy day captured on flowers tells a story of rain, of life, of color. It’s becoming increasingly rare, too.

Something to think about the next time you look at a picture online. Is there a greater context? Does it truly represent what is outside of the frame, or was it cobbled together?

Are you inside the frame, or are you in the world surrounding the frame like the photographer?