X Is For X-Factor

It's So Easy To Describe, But So Difficult To Attain

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

As a photographer and a writer, it's not every day of your life that you come across an image that produces a "look at me now" photograph, just as writing a memorable blog post or newspaper article can be highly elusive.

But therein lies the joy. Were they easy, then they would be far too commonplace. And that is precisely why a great photograph or a great piece of writing is one that you tend to remember, or that you keep in a special place, to bring out and share with people who matter.

All it takes is the ability to look at something differently, or the ability to present it differently. That is where The Big Difference lies.


I work on the most simple ground rule of all. If something catches my attention, I photograph it. Very often, someone will ask me why on earth I'm photographing something - but when I show them the image on the LCD screen of my camera, they "see" the beauty through my eyes.

And, my friends, therein lies the reward. Every time I take a photograph, I am inviting you into my own personal world, to share my viewpoint and to look directly at the sight I've captured, from the exact angle I've captured it. You see, in the image, precisely what I see through the viewfinder of my camera.

A few days ago, we were in the Bourke Street Mall here in Melbourne to check out the Myer Christmas windows. Above us, the entire street was covered by alternating cables of miniature lights and silver stars. As you can see by the shot below, it was a striking sight against the azure-blue of the darkening sky.


But the first two shots on this post were taken from a slightly different vantage point, with the focus deliberately blurred. In the first of the four shots, the vertical frame shows three street lights in the guise of golden globules. In the second of the four shots, the horizontal frame shows the same intriguing shimmer, with only a solitary street lamp looking like a mysterious golden pearl.


This final shot (above) was taken as we were leaving. In order to give you an idea of just how far the lights stretched down the street, I actually stood in the middle of Bourke Street, astride the tram tracks to hit the trigger very quickly before moving to safer ground.

And now, my final question for all of you - please let me know which of the four shots gets your vote.

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