Freaky Week

I alluded to this yesterday, but after I put it into words I realized I really have had a freaky couple of weeks with the camera. I've almost literally taken no more than five pictures—one at some friends' lake house, one a portrait of Zander, and three the evening before last—and to my surprise I quite like all five of them. I did take several exposures in each instance, as is my habit, but each time just of one scene, just to get the one shot. The picture above is my friend Ned Schley, at his log cabin on the shores of a small lake near where I live. I went for dinner, and I was probably there for four or five hours altogether, and I literally only touched the camera once—it was the only picture I took all evening. It wasn't set up at all. I just saw him listening to someone else talking, asked him to hold still for a second, and snapped it from where I was sitting. When Ned's son Jim saw it he said, "What a gorgeous, evocative picture—of the man and the place!" And...well, damned if it isn't, at that. (Not to be modest or anything.)

This, of course, is not the way photography is supposed to work. It's not the way photography usually works for me. I'm going to try to remember this, because I think it might be the Cosmos paying me back for all those times—dozens, if not hundreds, of times—that I thought I saw something but it turned out to be nothing, or that I worked hard and took lots and lots of exposures and got...nada. So what's the deal? Is what goes around coming around? Kismet. Karma. Payback.

I should probably go out and take pictures today, I'm thinking. But probably no more than two or three....

_________________

Mike

Featured Comment by Ed Wolpov: "It's not about the photography, Mike...it's about the connection. Being with the right people, feeling comfortable, enjoying a great dinner, having a drink, relaxing, grooving on the camaraderie of good friends is what it's all about...and it shows! You can't just go out and look for that, you've got to live it before you can shoot it."

Comments

[Bob]

It's because of all the positive vibes you were due by writing music reviews on c60crew.

That and a lifetime of concentrated effort has consecrated itself into a freaky couple o' weeks.

[Player]

Mike, it seems like all your experience and practice is coming together, like the well-seasoned bodybuilder who gets deeply into the muscle on the first repetition, without warming up.

[Gabi]

Of course the effort to duplicate the effortlessness, with your remark that "I should probably go out and take pictures today", probably defeats the point :) I dont think its positive vibes or karma or fate of any sort -- I think this is maybe what happens when we stop trying and are just present.

That all said - Im heading back to work now where I am expected to force all sorts of quasi-creativity!

[andy ilachinski]

Heck, sure beats my usual "workweek" ! I recently got back from a week's vacation in Florida, and the ONLY keeper I got after 1000 or so shots was the very last one (and on a fluke as well!). Story and image on my blog:
http://tao-of-digital-photography.blogspot.com/2007/07/chance-favors-prepared-mind.html

[chris]

I like the backlighting and atmosphere of that shot. Do you ever find that when you focus too much on photography, you become removed from the situation? Maybe this time you enjoyed the situation more so! For me, it's important to find the balance between the two...but the best is enjoying the moment and capturing it when it most matters.

[Chris Lane]

I really like this image and the one below. When I look at these, along with the prints you had for sale some time ago and some other work I see a painterly almost ethereal style emerging. When you can turn out images like this don’t worry about the numbers. Remember, it’s quality, not quantity, that counts.

[blork]

I'll skip the platitudes about "less is more" and "quality, not quantity." But I will say that I've never been impressed by photographers who brag about the quantity of their shooting. Who cares if someone filled a four-gig card on an afternoon's outing? When I hear about that kind of work I have no interest in looking at even a single one of them. It's shooting for the sake of shooting. Forget that!

Quantity is the fool's paradise, and contemporary photography creates a lot of fools because shooting is so cheap and easy. Give me a well considered, thoughful and meaningful image anyday; and those are most certainly NOT a dime a dozen.

[J London]

'This, of course, is not the way photography is supposed to work'

Perhaps the basis of that comment needs revisiting Mike because that worked!

[Gregory Clements]

This is not a comment on the topic of the thread, but more a comment on a comment.

Blork says: ' Give me a well considered, thoughful and meaningful image anyday; and those are most certainly NOT a dime a dozen.'

I would be very interested to hear of how you discern what constitutes a well-considered and meaningful image. Elizabeth Cowie argued in her article (in Screen Education, 23, Summer 1977), that "images have no necessary meanings except as they are produced in the process of viewing or reading and that images cannot in fact be treated as having a homogenous content or meaning which can be taken as a given".

This idea of a photograph having meaning, or not as the case has been stated, is most engaging!

Regards

Greg

[justin]

I totally agree Mike.

If I chance across a 'wow' subject, THE ONE is always the first of the 20 exposures I reel off. If I spend hours planning and preparing, it's always the shot I take afterwards on the way home.