I have been taking photographs since I was a young boy, encouraged by my parents and as I progressed to serious cameras I took inspiration from the works of well known photographers getting information from things called books. Remember them? Gradually I was influenced by the likes of Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier Bresson. Pretty good role models. I tried to see what was the essence of their images and tried to include it in the photos that I took. There are other photographers whose work impressed me but did not encourage me to apply their approach as they applied to situations that I was not driven to, such as portraiture. This week I encountered a photographer in a short video on Youtube, whose name is Stephen Shore. Suddenly I realised that my own style was similar to Stephen Shore’s work in the 1970s. When I say my own style, I mean photographs that did not fit into the classic definition of good images, those with powerful subjects giving an instant hit to the viewer. I took those types of images, if I could, because I thought that must be the best way to capture a photo. My personal style would be described by friends, also photographers, as being too fussy, too busy so generally sit on my computer rather than featuring on a blog. Stephen Shore’s work encouraged me to go back and look at some older photos, in this case form a trip along Route 66 in October 2010, where I had a hoard of images that fit with my objective, and, although not as good, could be seen in the way that Stephen Shore saw his photographs. They are busy photos but should have something which catches the eye, that is not the subject, which encourages the viewer to look across the whole image where you discover little gems which are not immediately apparent, if the reaction is “That’s too busy”. Here is a little sample, which I hope viewers will see as not my typical posted images, all from that trip from Chicago to Santa Monica. For contrast I have included two photos which are more likely to fit the criteria that I thought was the key to a good photograph, that is a visual hit. They are in the painted desert National Park in Arizona and at Tunnel View in Yosemite National Park in California. See what you think.