Close Your Eyes

Before we get into what I wanted to talk about here today I’d like you to take a moment, close your eyes, and imagine a photograph. What came to mind? Was it a snapshot of your significant other? A beautiful landscape? A classic work of art? Maybe you invented one in your mind, an image never seen outside of your imagination. Now, consider being the photographer behind the camera as the photo was taken, even if you were the one who took the photo. Can you imagine the smell of the air? The sound of the environment around you? The emotion felt as what lay in front of the lens transpired?

This is something that makes photography unique among other forms of art. These are not just arbitrary collections of light or pixels, photographs are alive. They are living breathing creations. Every snap of a shutter is another wormhole opening that bridges the past and the present. They collect memories, preseve them and hold the potential energy to thrust them back into your awareness. Even when they are not your own. A great photograph can take you anywhere, it can transform you. Of course, that is, if you let it.

Trouble is that we are currently drowning in imagery. The potential of any one image is being diluted with over exposure. I bet that when you closed your eyes, your mind didn’t jump to one, single photograph but leapt among a dozen different images, bits of each colliding into the next. Our minds move so quickly through an endless mental back catalogue of imagery that it can be hard to focus on any one thing for more than a split second.

It’s why you don’t see me posting a ton of images here or on Flickr. Being more mindful of what I choose to share allows them to have more of an opportunity to be seen, absorbed, and with any luck, remembered. Mental space is a precious thing these days and we can use all the breathing room we can get.

In light of this perspective on the value of any given image I have, in the past year or two, found myself shooting less than I once had. While out taking photos of something I won’t fire off a few dozen shots of the same scene. I find myself being more selective of when I trip the shutter. It has lead me to to a place where I feel more focused and confident in the process of shooting. At one point in the past year I lost my one lager capacity compact flash card and rather than go out and replace it with another I decided to stick with the few 2Gb cards that I have around. These give me around 120 shots per card and I rarely switch out cards unless I am traveling and shooting more often.

I find that in limiting the potential amount of images I allow myself to capture I am able to drive myself into a mental space that puts a greater importance on the things I do choose to capture. It puts me more in the moment rather than constantly glued to the LCD display of my 5D. While this comes after years of constant shooting and learning, I think both beginners and pros alike can benefit from a few creative restrictions.

Photography is a lifestyle as much as it is a profession. The images you create are only as good as the places you allow yourself to explore or the situations you place yourself in, so rather than let photography control your desires, let your desires and passion drive your photography.

Point being is that I firmly believe that to get great photos that will leave a lasting impact you must live your life to its fullest. Don’t question yourself too much, just stay active, follow your instincts and passion, and surround yourself with things that inspire you. Take chances! Nothing ever happens just by sitting around. Sometimes to discover these things you have to go out into the world and find them.

This is something I realized a few years back when I started to shoot film again. I discovered that my favorite personal work was that which I left a little piece of myself in. Sometimes it may be an intimate moment, other times it could be a place or situation not typically thought of as deserving of a photograph. Years of tailoring my shooting and subject choices for what I thought others would like grew tiresome. Letting myself venture beyond my comfort zone helped me discover that I did in fact have a voice while behind the lens and it’s been a joy to explore the implications of this. Even while out shooting at my favorite lake or while on a job site, I look for things that speak to me. I compose the shots I take first in an obvious way, then I shift my perspective to look for that one magic spot where I feel the subject resonate with my point of view. A good example of this would be the seemingly out of focus image posted a few weeks ago.

Life as a photographer should be an open book. There should be no dividing line between where your day to day life begins and your photography ends. Share with the rest of us what makes you you. When I see an image I always search for its reason for existing as much as its technical achievements. No matter how great an image may be technically, it won’t leave a mark if it lacks a soul.

This is one of the most important lessons learned while developing my skills as a photographer which, of course, is never ending. As with every great photogrpher in the medium’s short history you never really stop learning, it’s beautiful evolution and it should be embraced. So, that said, get out there, camera in hand, and live.

One Shot (Redscale)

Suwon Hwaseong Fortress. HolgaGN. Crazy lomo redscale film. (I posted this over on flickr but I thought I would share it here as well.)
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While in Seoul I found a decent price for a 3 pack of the Lomography redscale film and figured why not give it a go. Tossed it into the Holga and shot through the roll only later to discover it’s helpful to over expose the film a good amount in order to see better results. Guess I just wasn’t really thinking, pretty unlike me to jump into something without a fair amount of research beforehand.

From what I understand, redscale film is nothing too fancy, just normal color film only it has been spooled into the canister upside down so you are shooting through the base to the emulsion which results in strange color reactions. This shot was pretty much the only usable one from the roll due to everything being greatly underexposed. I suppose I will give it another go, maybe shooting through the hasselblad for more exposure control. While it was fun to try I am pretty sure I wont be using it again once I run out, a touch too gimmicky for my taste.

…to elaborate on my comment about it being gimmicky. I was thinking about it and realized its not particularly the gimmick that I find fault with, it’s more my personal approach to photography not having a place for this kind of image. I’m just not sure where it fits in with my other work. Like the X-Pro and double exposure ideas I have toyed with in the past the results can be fun but I never know quite what to do with them.

I have worked internally for quite some time looking for common themes and ideas within what I shoot and alternative processing never really seems to fit in with my end goals. Point being, I love this shot and have fun experimenting but its satisfaction feels very singular, like an island in that it feels isolated and disconnected from the rest of my work. Or then again, as YoungDoo mentioned to me, maybe its not simply a singular statement but the beginning of a new process I have yet to fully consider. We shall see.

Seoul Photo 2011

I’m not sure how many readers reside in Korea but I once again have photos on display in Seoul and this time I thought I would point it out as I think its a great exhibition to check out. I only wish I were there to participate. The images on display/ for sale are a selection from the collaborative effort between myself and YoungDoo over at OurWindow.net. While it has been some time since we have posted to the series we hope to pick it back up again in the future to add to the collection. The photo art fair seems like a wonderful display of fine art photography and I am excited to be part of it, even from a distance. Here is a link to the flyer over on YoungDoo’s Flickr photo stream.

The Print Aid Project

It’s no secret that I have a soft spot for Japan. For years my one traveling goal was to spend time in that wonderful country, however with time and the unpredictable nature of life my travel time was split between Europe, India, and South Korea. I still have intentions to visit Japan one day in the future but for now I simply continue to admire its beauty from afar. Due to this love for the land of the rising sun I found myself pretty shaken by the events that took place recently. Digging through endless conflicting news stories and photographs I could not believe some of what I was seeing and reading. Its incredible the magnitude of problems that seem to have risen from the disaster and the continuing struggles so many people of Japan face today and for a long time to come.

Among all of the news reports and ongoing coverage of what is happening you can’t help but notice the huge amount of creative support people have been giving to aid the people of Japan in whatever way they can manage. At one of my favorite local coffee shops I noticed a bowl full of folded paper cranes along with a note reading, 1000 cranes to raise $1000 for Japan, or something to that degree and a glass next to the basket where you could donate a dollar and have a paper crane as a token of appreciation for the support given. On a larger scale, all across the web I see a number of amazing efforts to raise money for those in need including beautifully designed shirts, compilation albums featuring original music, amazing posters and now, photographic and illustrated prints for sale.

A few weeks ago I was asked if I would participate in a project that was being started up by a few great photographers called The Print Aid Project. I thought this would be a fantastic way to do my part to help out and so I went searching for a great photo to share. I settled on a favorite of many of my followers, one of the images from White Sands, NM. Perhaps not as bold as some of my other photographs but I love the subtlety of the image and thought it would make a great print for anyone to enjoy around their home or office.

So while I continue to work on getting a store page up here on 50ft this is a great opportunity to grab a printed version of one of my photographs at a great price and at the same time show your support for the people of Japan as they go through these rough times. You can head straight to my image on the Print Aid website here.

One Shot

It has been a while since posting anything to my One Shot posts. I am realizing now that I never formally introduced this series. I typically use them to share some of my film photography with readers of the site that may not follow my flickr stream closely which is where I usually share more of my film work. Due to continuing hold ups with the new site design I have been pushing back the launch of my expanded writing ideas and focus on the site but you can still expect more around here in the future! Anyways, I loved the classic feel of this shot, soft and filled with warm grey tones I feel as though this moment existed only in black and white. I developed this film a little differently than I usually do. While shooting I underexposed 100 ISO film by two full stops and then pushed the developing time to make up for the underexposure. This can be a bit unpredictable but the added contrast and grain I was searching for ended up being too much for my taste and a lot of the shots on the rolls I tried this with ended up more or less unusable in my eyes. As I continue to scan them in I will be posting a few more over on flickr if you would like to see more of the results form this little experiment.

For anyone wondering this was shot with my Voigtlander R3M and 40mm f/1.4 lens using Fuji Acros film. I typically do not use my film photography for desktop images but may reconsider this in the future if I get my hands on a better scanner.