New Family Member

I am interrupting the blog to report that we now have a new family member.....an 8 week old kitten! It was adopted from a nearby shelter, having been raised by a foster family until it was big enough to move in with someone permanently. We don't quite have a name for her yet. She was named Nile by the family that was raising her, but I think we are going to rename her. I am voting for Cleo (as in Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile), but we will see what the kids decide.

It is unbelievable how small she is....reminded me of bringing my kids home from the hospital that first time. My oldest was holding the transport box ever so gently, carefully and flat while we were bringing her out to the car....I told him "well, now you sort of know what it was like the first time I brought you home in the car!".

Just a quick break from photography for the announcement...and yes, I know the picture is blurry. It was taken by my wife, via cell phone from the shelter.

"Nile"

Slideshow

Today, I have a bit of a personal note. I will be giving a slideshow presentation on Wednesday, June 6 at the REI store on Pittsburgh's South Side. The topic is nature photography in and around the Pittsburgh area and is sponsored by REI and Venture Outdoors, a great group whose mission statement can be seen here. In association with the talk, I am also taking a group out Sunday, January 10th to Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve for a nature photography field session. Though the program is aimed at beginners, anyone out there who is in the area is certainly welcome to attend.

This is my first attempt at any type of photographic teaching, so I am really looking forward to it. I tend not too be 'big' on public speaking, but am excited about doing this. I just hope that I am able to convey, in some small way, how much I enjoy photographing and how it can really open up a deeper appreciation for and understanding of nature. I hope it goes well, as I think that it might be something that I would really be interested in doing more of.

I'll let everyone know how it goes in a future post!

Unencumbered By The Gravity Of It All, Pt II

A few days back I wrote about going out to photograph with my seven year old daughter using a cheap point and shoot camera and not worrying about 'making good images'. That post was entitled "Unencumbered By The Gravity Of It All". Recently, Heather added a comment saying, among other things:

"Kudos for sharing this amazing world with your daughter. I'd like to see some of her photos!"

Hey, I can do that!

I thought that after yesterday's post "Portraying The Unthinkable", something a little lighter would be in order. So, here is a selection of my daughters images from the trip described in the original "Unencumbered" post. They are taken straight from the camera with dad adding just a quick touch of sharpening for the web. I present Nature, as seen through the eyes of a seven year old armed with mom's point 'n shoot:

Oh, and by the way, Heather, if you are out there reading this, I tried to e-mail you a few weeks back but the e-mail got returned to me as undeliverable.

Integrating Photography Into Life

Lately, and I think it has something to do with warmer weather and the arrival of Spring, I have been feeling, rather strongly, that I am just not getting enough opportunity to do photography. Family and work obligations clearly limit the amount of free time that one has.

Don't get me wrong, the purpose of this post is not to voice complaints. Rather, I have been trying to think about ways that photography can be more easily integrated into the time that one has available. For example, as many of you know, I am a cardiologist practicing in Pittsburgh, PA. However, I spend, on average, one day a week outside of Pittsburgh, seeing patients in a small town in Ohio. I have found myself thinking about the possibility of starting a photographic project there, as it might not be too difficult to spend an hour or so photographing after work and before going home. I have to admit, if I had all the time to photograph that I wanted, that project would probably not make the top of the list, but I am trying to think in a utilitarian way.

Another thought that I had revolves around making images of some older and beautiful buildings near my home.

The mainstay of these ideas is that it would allow me to photograph without the one hour travel time in each direction that has been the case with most of my photographic excursions.

Thinking about these ideas makes me curious as to how others might have tried to integrate photography and photographic projects into their schedules. What has been an effective strategy? What has not worked out well? I would certainly appreciate any insight that people might have about these issues.

Unencumbered By The Gravity Of It All

I’m not talking about the force that keeps us tethered to the ground. I’m talking about gravity, as in seriousness.

Let me explain. Usually when I go out to photograph it is a very serious undertaking indeed. I get up quite early to shoot in the ‘good light’ and take a backpack of equipment carefully chosen based on where I plan on going and what I am hoping to try to make images of. For the most part, all of my ‘serious’ photographs are made with a tripod that is placed after careful deliberation and experimentation. I usually go out alone, as I don’t know all that many people that are into photography.

I had a very different experience a few days ago, which, in many ways, was like a breath of fresh air.

I have always hoped that perhaps one of my three children would develop an interest in either nature or photography so that as I, and they, get older, we might enjoy going on photographic trips, or at least hiking, together. Well, so far it sure isn’t happening, at least not yet and at least not with the two older ones.

So I decided the time was ripe to give my seven year old daughter a try. I have several waterfall pictures hanging in my home, and she has drawn crayon pictures of me taking photographs of the waterfalls. Several times in the past, I had asked her if she wanted to go with me to where I take these pictures and see the real waterfall, but she has always said no. Well, on this particular day, she had no friends over and I told her that if we went not only would we see waterfalls, but we could both take little point and shoot cameras and she could take her very own pictures of the falls. Reluctantly, she agreed.

In a moment, I will tell you how she liked it, but first let me get to the real reason I am writing this. I wanted to take her because I wanted to see the happiness on her face at seeing her first real waterfall and to give her the opportunity to take her own photographs. In my mind, the only reason I was bringing a point and shoot camera was to take pictures of my daughter. From the standpoint of taking any photographs of the park……well, the camera was small and cheap, the light was terrible with direct, harsh, overhead sun, and I had photographed this particular area so many times I was sure that there would be nothing that I would find particularly interesting photographically.

Just The Two Of Us

Yes, I took plenty of quick snaps of my daughter. But something else also happened. Walking around with just a little camera at the absolute wrong time of day was, well maybe exhilarating is too strong a word, but it was really fun. Maybe it was because I felt like I didn’t have to try to find nice shots. Maybe I didn’t even make any nice shots….but the point is that I didn’t care. The light was bright and harsh…….fine, I saw some harsh shadows that were nice to take some shots of. Everywhere I looked I started seeing things that I could just take some quick shots of to see if it ‘worked’. I even decided to tuck away a number of ideas that I had for when I did come back with a ‘serious’ camera. There was something uplifting and freewheeling about just going at the wrong time and trying to make ‘lemonade out of lemons’. I am starting to think that going out in this fashion might actually be very beneficial at those times when one seems to hit a creative ‘brick wall’ and nothing seems to flow. I am going to give it a try the next time I am in that dreaded zone. It certainly couldn’t hurt.

Hanging On

Oh, and by the way, my daughter had a great time and wants to go back. I don’t know if she will develop a love of photography and be my ‘photo buddy’ or not….…but here is the devious trick I used to try to bring her one step closer to making that happen. Several times she would stop and ask, “Dad, is it OK if I take a picture of that?” To which I replied, “Sure you can. You can take pictures of anything you want. That is one of the really nice things about photography…...there are no rules!” Hopefully, music to a child’s ears. I will report back in ten years and let you know whether or not it worked!