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Seizing The Moment |
One of the most valuable lessons I have learnt thus far in my 40 plus years of walking around with some sort of camera, is that you do not have to travel great distances to capture what could be a creative and dynamic image. Look around, I guarantee there is an image with your name on it within a 100 metre / yard radius of where you live, are relaxing or working at any given moment.
All too often the stuff around us, the stuff of life we live with every day becomes all too familiar. Why do think tourists get excited about something they see in your city or town for the first time? To you it may be ordinary and familiar but to the tourist it's new and exciting, it's just a matter of perspective. Learn to become a tourist in your daily world and see it through a new set of eyes, maybe in a different light, a different time of day or from a different perspective. This is the making of creative genius. It is about discovering something that has always been there and seeing it as if it were for the very first time.
Every day we see hundreds of images bombarding us from every sector of the media, shot by photographers who travel all around the world to capture them. If you are like me, you probably wish you could visit these places so that you too could capture some of these image. But the reality for most of us is we can't. We are amateurs doing our best just to work and pay the bills etc. We take our holidays when and where we can according to what we can afford. Some us who can afford holidays with a difference may sign up for an extensive and often expensive photo walks in China, the Himalayas, Europe or some other exotic place, Now while this may provide some environmental inspiration, will it enable you to become a better, more proficient and insightful artist?
To me personally, being able to take pretty pictures of something that has a natural and obvious beauty is not extra ordinary, it remains ordinary and expected, especially with high tech digital cameras and post processing software.
I think the real challenge for creative genius to fly is to begin fleshing out the extra-ordinary from the ordinary, turning something mundane into something beautiful and provoking beginning in your own backyard, neighborhood, village, town or city. A potter always starts with a hunk of clay, a painter with a blank canvas but a photographer always starts with a landscape that already exists. We therefore learn to exclude rather than what to include.
We always seem to seek out the brilliant sunrises or only shoot in the magic hours at dawn or dusk to create an image of obvious beauty but the really hard part of actually learning to be a creative genius, (which is something I aspire to) is to create something out of nothing like a painter or potter, to make the ordinary extra ordinary. It may not happen today or the next one but if you persevere, it will happen and when it does, the ordinary will become extra ordinary and any natural beauty which could produce a pretty picture will turn into something spectacular.
When I reviewed most of my current images, just about every one of them was a scene I had walked into. It came to me as I saw it in context with the space and time I was occupying at the time. I travel for other reasons than just pure photography, like visiting family and friends, riding the Harley or sailing the yacht, but rarely travel to shoot in an organized manner for photography's sake. I have only done it once when I visited the slums of Manila for work I was doing for a charity. I personally prefer a more random approach with no preplanned notions of what I'm looking for and I'm relaxed about that. It's fun and spontaneous all at the same time.
One of the safety riding tips I learnt for riding the Harley was called S.E.E. It stands for Search, Evaluate and Execute. It is a discipline I use for rolling into a bend but it also applies to how I shoot. As I ride, walk or drive I am always searching, scanning for creative possibilities. I would then evaluate an item of interest, then execute by pushing the shutter, which is the easy part. Sometimes this can be a lengthy process, other times it's instantaneous with a grab shot.
When I reviewed most of my current images, just about every one of them was a scene I had walked into. It came to me as I saw it in context with the space and time I was occupying at the time. I travel for other reasons than just pure photography, like visiting family and friends, riding the Harley or sailing the yacht, but rarely travel to shoot in an organized manner for photography's sake. I have only done it once when I visited the slums of Manila for work I was doing for a charity. I personally prefer a more random approach with no preplanned notions of what I'm looking for and I'm relaxed about that. It's fun and spontaneous all at the same time.
One of the safety riding tips I learnt for riding the Harley was called S.E.E. It stands for Search, Evaluate and Execute. It is a discipline I use for rolling into a bend but it also applies to how I shoot. As I ride, walk or drive I am always searching, scanning for creative possibilities. I would then evaluate an item of interest, then execute by pushing the shutter, which is the easy part. Sometimes this can be a lengthy process, other times it's instantaneous with a grab shot.
I shot this particular image one cold winter while visiting my daughter Sacha in Hamilton, New Zealand. The sun had just risen, the fog was still lingering and as I walked outside, there it was. I raced inside to grab the camera which I always have preset to manual and bracketed exposures. I didn't plan to get up that early, I was just there at the time. I'm the accidental tourist.These moments are everywhere, you don't always have to always go to look for them, they will come to you.
As you travel anywhere for whatever reason, take your camera, keep your eyes open. Search, Evaluate and Execute. If you drive by the 'money shot' don't plan to get it on your way back, it won't be there. Organized photo walks and tours are great, especially if you can afford to travel with an experienced photographer. But for those who can't for whatever reason, just be aware that every time you go somewhere it is 'tour' and a 'photo walk' begins next time you walk anywhere for any reason.
Try not to live in those 'if only' spaces. If only I was in China, if only I was in The Grand Canyon, if only I was blah blah....you are where you are at any given moment, seize it and create, here and now. It's a part of the daily creative process of living,
As you travel anywhere for whatever reason, take your camera, keep your eyes open. Search, Evaluate and Execute. If you drive by the 'money shot' don't plan to get it on your way back, it won't be there. Organized photo walks and tours are great, especially if you can afford to travel with an experienced photographer. But for those who can't for whatever reason, just be aware that every time you go somewhere it is 'tour' and a 'photo walk' begins next time you walk anywhere for any reason.
Try not to live in those 'if only' spaces. If only I was in China, if only I was in The Grand Canyon, if only I was blah blah....you are where you are at any given moment, seize it and create, here and now. It's a part of the daily creative process of living,
"The biggest 'like' you can receive is the one you give yourself"
..Lightraider
