Hanging out with squares

You could say I've been making the [re]acquaintance of squares ...

as silly as it sounds, Instagram might be to blame.  Which won't make much sense to

non-users so to clarify:  Instagram, the online mobile photo-sharing & networking service,

has the distinctive feature of confining photos to a square format.

If you want to post there your image must fit into a square

so if you didn't shoot it that way to begin with, it's resized to fit.

Remember the Polaroids of old?

Framing within the rectangular 4:3 aspect ratio almost exclusively for most of my life

left me, at first, fighting for elbow room within this equal-sided confined space.

But before too long, I wondered what was so bad about a little size challenge anyway? 

Surely this leap wasn't going to be as great as dumping my film cameras

in trade for digital?

That was enormously difficult.

Fast forward a year or so ...

Forward through a whole lot of practice/editing time

while commuting on the ferries,

forward through lots of "window seat" opportunities to try this, try that, ask what if ...

Alternative worlds were tried on - my app-aholic time, I called it.

It took a while to sort of tweak my viewpoint

but making the subject matter fit into a

perfectly

symmetrical

BOX

finally became not such a conscious struggle.

So what's come from all this?

A hefty file of ferry photos for one ...

During all weathers, ranges of light, in transit & not;

daytime, mid-darkness to ethereal at midnight; 

looking up, behind, out, across the rails or beyond -

laden with tourists in the high season,  deliciously empty & silent in the off ...

and at times, strangely decorated ...

My island wandercloth became a textile installation afloat

near Waldron Island

[yup, there's an app for that].

Somewhere along this mobile photography journey I began to follow an info-packed blog

called, "Art of Mob" compiled by Geri Centonze.  Wowza.  App reviews, tutorials,

fab interviews ... chock full.  I noticed Geri ran the occasional *challenge* on Instagram.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles  [any mode of rapid transit] was the chosen subject recently

so I thought, what the heck, I've got ferries ...

Twas the rope composition which floated me onto the  showcase

but I want to mention that I couldn't have done it without 

Distressed FX texture app ...

*  thank you  *

Now it seems the whole square option is sneaking its way into other aspects

of my once rectangular life.

'splash' went decidedly that direction without hesitation ...

and today's gathering of leaves got into the act ...

during the lineup for the seasonal portrait

they arranged themselves

just so.