Postcards from the Creative Journey

Making the Transition

Door Knob and Shadow from "Victorian Lady."

Going from the workaday world to that of part time full time Fine Art Photographer (well, that’s what I like to think I am when out on photo safari) is not one of those switch on and switch off things. It does take some time to make that transition between right and left brained tasks that occupy my profession and avocation. It does take some time to successfully make that happen. I assume because we are creatures of habit and build up momentum that is difficult to redirect.

So I think back to the post on the Edward Weston film. One of the narrator’s comments struck me as I prepare for this year’s safari. The narrator talked about an artist having “To open the gates around our heart so that we can feel freely, to clean up the clutter of our minds so we can think clearly.”

It takes a day or two to get to that place even if you start doing that exercise before you leave the workaday world. 

Blogging in the North Atlantic

An Admiral once said, "If you fight in the North Atlantic, you train in
the North Atlantic." So, I think I will be making a few extra blog posts
this week to practice blogging the way I expect to be blogging when on
safari next week. Next Week? Wow. It's come down to the last few days
before I leave.

Techincally (which is not normally the way blog), the picture was made on
my "real" camera, loaded to the ipad mini, a quick run through PhotoShop
Touch and attached to an email to my secret typepad account. I think the
image will appear at the bottom of the blog, so what you're looking at is
an "extra" photograph from the Winter Window project.

So, let the testing begin..,

Checking the Checklist

 

Window and Sun, from A Summer Morning

Way back in the days of the early photo safaris, I was packing the back of the truck with the myriad accessories required to perform photography with a large format camera. When photographing with an 8x10 view camera (where the negative size measures 8” x 10”) the camera parts and accessories are carried in many large containers. After the packing was finished, we headed out into the wilds of central Oregon for a week of photography.

All went well until we made the first photographic stop. As I began to assemble the 8x10 camera, I discovered the back of the camera was missing. It was one of those, “I thought you had it” moments. It was a transformative situation that changed the direction of the safari both physically and thematically. We reversed direction and headed back to town to pick up the rest of the camera and continued the safari along the Oregon Coast.

More On Practice

Arch in the Devils Garden

Last week’s topic got me to thinking about another analogy between professionals and amateurs. It is said that amateurs will practice until they can do it right. Professionals practice until they cannot do it wrong. Not being able to do it wrong takes a lot more effort than learning how to do it right.

My experience during last year’s photo safari impressed upon me the need for more extensive preparation to be able to manipulate both image and text files for these blog entries. Not being able to back up images, process digital files and make blog updates with images was very frustrating. This level of frustration had an effect on my attitude and ability to create. To avoid repeating this poor performance, I need to prepare differently this year. Now I better get started practicing the software programs that I am going to need for this year’s photo safari. 

Thinking is Bad, Concentrating is Good

Votives at the Grotto, from "Despise Not My Petitions"

The golf instructor Harvey Penick often told his students the secret to good golf was to think on the practice range and concentrate on the golf course. To think on the golf course is to court disaster because thinking gets in the way of doing what should be routine. I think this also holds true when photographing. Having complete confidence in your ability to handle the camera and its controls reflexively leaves a whole lot more mental energy available for the creative part of photography.

For the many years I took a view camera on the photo safari, part of my pre-trip preparation was to get out the view camera and practice setting up the tripod, unfolding the camera, attaching the lensboard, focusing and setting the shutter. It was a necessary activity to insure that I could “get the shot” when faced with rapidly changing light.

I’m going to take a break for a few weeks from telling stories about my photographs and get back to writing about preparations for this year’s photo safari. I’ll get back to the stories later. Who knows, there might be a few stories when I blog from the road. 

I Don’t Want The Gun Between Us

Reenactors, Fayetteville, North Carolina

Once up on a time I received a grant to help offset the cost of learning how to make platinum prints. Living in the American South one of the subjects readily available to photograph with a large wooden camera are Civil War reenactments. Walking around a reenactment site with a large wooden camera was considered normal by the reenactors. Once I was outfitted in period garb, I was all but invisible. It took very little persuasion to let reenactors “portray their likeness” with my photographic machine.

In photographing one couple, the first pose the soldier held his rifle in his right hand. His wife said, “Don’t take the photo yet, I don’t want the gun between us.” He moved the rifle to the other hand and I made the photograph.

I wondered, how often a woman said that to her soldier husband.