You Have to Learn to See
A Book dedicated to Tom Martin – my teacher and inspiration

“You have to learn to see.” Tom Martin repeats this message to me often. I take this directive as going beyond the simple act of using my eyes to scan the objects surrounding me in search of new things to photograph. Deep impressions are a rare event. Sometimes there is a dramatic shift. We look at the same objects and scenes we normally see during the course of our lives, but suddenly an unfamiliar difference is evident. Everything comes into focus. For a brief moment we are seeing the world as it should be perceived. We are in the moment.

We have beautiful garden areas in our yard in the Bucks County area of Pennsylvania. I have walked among the flowers there for over twenty years, but I did not see the flowers until I took Tom’s advice to heart. When I started to look in the way Tom encouraged me to look, flowers that had always been interesting to me came to life. I began to notice features of the flowers that had previously escaped my attention. I have always liked certain flowers for the splash of remarkable color they brought each Spring to the Northeast part of the United States. Up close with my eyes open to their special hidden features, they transformed from a neat signal of approaching warmer weather to a non-ending display of inner secrets. Suddenly, I had to photograph them!

Tom taught me how to see nature in a different way, and he also taught me how to capture some aspects of what I saw through photography. I had not taken more than a handful of photographs prior to meeting Tom, but I did have considerable experience with imaging as a medical tool. The camera in either analog or digital form came as a natural given my training and work experience as a physicist. However, Tom taught showed me how to use the camera and lens for macro photography. He taught me lighting, mounting, focusing, composition and depth-of-field. Moreover, he taught me to be open and free with my photography. He was a master of the camera, and he helped immensely with the creative aspects of the process of making an image.

I am indebted to Tom Martin, and I cherished his friendship.