I’m a “head case”….at least I find that I do a good bit of photography in my head! I mentioned in yesterday’s post that my wife gave me the ‘what have you been drinking look’ when I asked her if she could see a blue color cast to the snow. Well, in reality, I really do know what she was thinking at the time, and it was along the lines of “you’re doing photography in your head again, aren’t you?”
Often, most of us who pursue photography with a passion have other careers or professions that limit the amount of time we can devote to the photographic arts. We need to make compromises. George Barr, in his blog, made an extremely eloquent post entitled Career, Family, and Photography that is well worth reading in this regard.
However, at the same time that we know we must make compromises, we also know that one can’t expect to go out and slip right into the groove of composing great images when it’s been some time since we last picked up a camera. It just doesn’t work that way. It takes a while to get back “into the zone”.
One of the things that I find myself doing that helps to keep in tune is, as my wife knew, doing photography in my head. While driving to work, I often find myself carefully looking at the scenery going by and picking out images, thinking about how I might compose them. I also listen to some of the great photography podcasts that I have listed in the blog sidebar (more of these to come) while in the car. I try to keep looking at and evaluating images from books that are in my ‘photographic library’ as well as from several photography magazines that I subscribe to (more on these later as well).
I do think there are ways to practice the art without actually being out in the field. Is it as good a way to keep photographically limber? Not by a long shot, but sometimes a good compromise is the best we can hope for.
3 comments:
On my way to work....back before retirement....I use to drive past a field. Just an ordinary field but some mornings if there was a fog, or at certain times of the year the sun was low enough to make wonderful shadows in the grasses, or some mornings the grass sparkled with frost. Too much to do...kids, job, appointments etc., to stop and wade through the wet grasses and make pictures. And somehow on Saturdays or Sundays when I could go make pictures, the field was never in a magical moment. I wish I actually had some pictures of this ordinary field but at the very least I'm grateful that I "saw" the picture because I think that the majority of people who drove past that field never saw the magic. So even if all we can do is make a picture in our head, it enriches our life.
How true. And, I, for one, seem to be guilty of forgetting that all too frequently, instead wishing that I had the time to get out.
Howard, I've been 'looking' for a long time now (since I was ten years old). At least over the years I have trained my car and/or my feet when I'm walking, to do what they have to, so that I can continue to look. Of course, if I did this *all* the time, I'd go crazy! Other things do go on in one's life, as you know all too well. Doing this looking is now an inherent part of who I am.
Post a Comment