Mariia Novoselia
Staff writer
Producing impressive pictures doesn’t always require expensive gear. In her first visit to Chautauqua Institution, photojournalist Anne Day will share smartphone photography tips and tricks with anyone who wants to learn.
Day has been working in photojournalism for the last 40 years, and said she has “photographed every single thing there is to photograph.”
Organized by Chautauqua Bird, Tree & Garden Club, her Brown Bag lecture is at 12:15 p.m. today at Smith Wilkes Hall.
In “Garden and Nature Photography,” Day will talk about the different gardens she has captured in images, discuss several approaches to garden photography and the equipment she uses.
A special segment of her talk will focus on iPhone photography. Day said she teaches an in-person course on the topic at her studio in Connecticut. With this part of her lecture, she said, she wants to demonstrate how advanced technology can help anyone have beautiful photographs.
She said she wants to help Chautauquans see that the art of garden and nature photography can be easy and approachable.
Day’s love for photography was born when she was in high school. She said she used to draw and paint, but what ultimately drew her to photography was “the immediacy of it.”
In a 2005 story for the Digital Journalist, Day wrote she pursued photography because she “wanted to articulate the ineffable.”
Since that time, she has traveled across the world to countries like Haiti and Cuba, and covered historical events, such as presidential inaugurations and women’s marches. Day said she is most proud of a project called “Summer Lawns” that depicts the “intersection of children and nature.”
“For me these pictures, mostly taken over the past three summers, are an autobiography of a life that I wished for, that I wished that I had remembered,” she wrote in the same 2005 story.
Photography of the outdoors has a special place in Day’s portfolio. She said one of the things she likes about photographing nature is that “it’s always there.”
“You don’t have to go anywhere to find it. In my case, it’s on my porch,” she said.
Day received an award for “exquisitely Illuminating the symmetry, elegance and proportion of Classical buildings” in 2016. The work featured prominent examples of classical architecture, including the United States Capitol and the Library of Congress. Day’s affinity for symmetry has found its way into her garden photography.
“Nature has its own kind of symmetry,” she said.
Reflecting on past presentations, Day said, as “homework” for her lecture, she encourages Chautauquans to look through her photographs via Instagram: @anneday13.
Day said she hopes people who attend her lecture bring their technical and aesthetic inquiries along.
“I’d like to make myself useful and helpful by answering questions about photographing the outdoors,” she said.
