Learning to wait

Learning to wait is a struggle for everyone. It rarely exists in a young child, but as we mature we hopefully develop an increased ability to wait and be patience. Living most of my 74 years in a very small town, waiting was seldom a concern because dealing with crowds and traffic was never an issue. My little town didn’t have a traffic light, and waiting in line to buy something was a rare event. Now living my retirement years in a community with a high density population, I have to learn to deal with waiting and the frustration that comes with that. It is a certaiinty that humans have little capacity to wait. I see it in nearly every situation I am in when out in public. Rude people are people who have no capacity to wait, and sadly as the speed of our lives quicken there will be more rude people to deal with in our lives. So how does all this refer to photography and the process to create? As photographers the more we learn to wait and be patience the better our work will become. Unlike other artist, we have to wait on the light, the weather conditions, and the potential obstacles to get to the location of where we want to make an image. Looking through the many years of the images I have made in various locations I think about the time that was required to get to the location and then wait for the good light to hopefully appear. I sort of equate photography with fishing. You buy all the right equipment. get up early and head out with great expectations for the day, but more times than not you come home empty handed. No fish or no photographs. In my early years this use to frustrate me as a wasted day with nothing to show for it. But as the years passed I realized that the special images, the true keepers, was well worth the wait an effort. Just like fishing, you always remember that big fish you once caught, and when heading out, that is hope and goal. You learn over time that if you come home empty handed it is all part of the experience of pursuing your passion. I made this image in Newfoundland on Fogo Island. I rolled out of my warm comfortable bed on a cool morning and drove out in the early morning light only to find a dense fog at the location I wanted to photograph in. A bit discouraging, but I waited as the sun started to rise over the North Atlantic ocean and burned through the fog. The image I was hoping for was turned out better than expected and it is all because I was willing to wait at the location.

A quiet time of day

I am always in search of a remote quiet location to do my photography. The stillness lets me take my time to connect with the environment that I am in. I don't like rushing around when doing landscape photography. Being rushed often leads to making numerous poorly composed images that just fill up a memory card. It is better to make a few good images that represents the emotions you feel about the subject and location, than just to fire away hoping that you get something that inspires. I learned to take a slow approach with landscape photography with my many years of working with a film and a large format camera. It is easy to fall into bad habits with camera that think too much for you. I pretty much use my mirrorless cameras in fully manual mode. I really don't bother to learn the multiple features that modern digital cameras offer. I find it too difficult to be occupied with many functions and settings that are built into these cameras for my style of photography. Certainly if I was still doing professional sports photography I would utilize many of the features these new cameras offer. This image is from a Canada trip around Lake Superior. It was long after sunset on a calm and quiet summers night.

While traveling in Canada last summer around the North side of Lake Superior. I found some interesting hikes that took me along some streams flowing down off the nearby mountains. It was a cool and rainy month of August and the waterfalls were full of energy. On my hike I noticed from a distance a rock that appeared to look like a profile of a face on the side of wall. I stopped and took out my rectangle viewing card that I always carry with me, and determined I would need a 400 mm lens to get the subject framed correctly. I found a good spot for my tripod and a comfortable big rock to sit on, and took my time just enjoying the rushing sound of the water and the solitude of the location. The rock figure looks like an Indian Chief or an old fur trapper that lived in the area centuries ago. As I was sitting there after making my photograph a young boy and his Mother saw me and wondered what I was photographing. I pointed out the face I saw on the rock wall and I could tell they didn't see it. So I let them look at the view finder of my camera and they were both astonished that they would have missed this scene on their hike. It is always gratifying to come upon the unexpected when our hiking and having my camera gear with me.

Winter time and bare trees

I always enjoy photographing trees without leaves. To me a tree with just bare branches has more presence. Certaily tree with their fall corlors make for a beautiful photographs, but I find bare trees have more charactor and therefor a more interesting subject. I made this image during the winter months in Florida when the Bald Cypress trees loose their leaves.

Another 3am image

The older I get the less I sleep.  At times it is frustrating dealing with insomnia but I find that the wee hours of the morning gives me the quiet time to work on an image without any distractions.  I think back of my many years working alone in the darkroom and it was a space of little noise or interruptions.  Once I entered the space I had a mind set and focus of working on printing an image.  I knew I had maybe three to four hours of a good concentration level before I tired out. After that I would mix chemicals or do other mundane task the darkroom work required.  The digital darkroom is much harder to maintain a steady concentration when working on an image.  There are frequent distractions that come with being on a computer and doing photography.  A simple notice of an incoming email message will take me out of my processing mindset and I end up just saving the image off to work on later.  If you take your photography seriously you will need to find a way to work without frequent interruptions.  The steps to processing of an image takes analysis, execution, and finalization in order to achieve a satisfactory image.  A disruption in any phase will most likely end up with falling short of achieving a successful image.  So, do I like working on my images when I should be sleeping? No, but it does help me produce some of my favorite images. 

Seeking quiet in a noisy world

 

We just returned from a road trip that took us nearly 6,500 miles of traveling backroads through parts of the U.S. and Canada.  We took our camper so we could spend several days in an area to explore around and learn some history of region.  Making a trip like this would usually require a lot of planning, but we decided to just drive and see where the road would takes us.  We met many fine people in our travels and received a lot of good tips on where we might want to go and what to see in those locations.  The most enjoyable times of our trip were spent in the quiet and open spaces.  For nearly a month while in Canada we had no internet, cell service, or TV, and soon realized how much our lives have become reliant on that technology.  When we returned to the States with being connected again we sort of felt like we gave up something to be back in the flow of digital information.  The freedom from noisy ads, news, and all the other stuff thrown at us each day was refreshing.  I realize few of us are going to be separated from the hustle of the busy world around us, but a roadtrip taking the backroads can give you a little break. 

When disaster strikes in the digital world

Lou Rovo Center for Brain Health

                                                          Florida Polytechnic University

 I recently started to do some architectural photography.  Finding an interesting build can be a challenge and then hoping for the right light when on location is always a concern. I made the first image last September in Las Vegas. It was located on a busy street with lots of traffic nearby. The building had trees and other vegetation planted around the structure.  The second image of Florida Polytechnic University I made this week.  In contrast it was a very quiet campus with classes out of session for the summer. The Florida summer clouds made for a nice backdrop.  Now for the heartbreak.  I was working on my photography a couple of days ago when one of our daily violent summer thunderstorms came rolling in.  I usually run to the computer and shut down all my devices and unplug from the UPS backups.  The next morning I fired up my computer and my couple of external hard drives only to find several folder completely gone from my external hard drives and other images gone from within folders that remained. These two images are just a couple that no longer exist.  I have searched and for days and there is nothing to find.  How this can happen is unknown to me.  I try to backup as much as possible but for some reason all the digital devils struck and took away some of my best images I have worked so hard on.  It is a mystery and the lost is devastating because now I only have a few jpeg images to haunt me of what I had.