If I were to give a photography class, I could condense it into four steps that would easily fit on a 3×5 index card. So here, in easy to understand form, are my four steps to becoming an accomplished photographer:

1. Buy, borrow, or steal a camera, preferably one with manual controls. It doesn’t matter what kind.
2. Get familiar with said camera until using it’s controls are as natural as breathing.
3. Learn the fundamentals of exposure so you can use the controls to achieve good results.
4. Practice honing your own unique vision for the rest of your life.

Repeat step 4 diligently, and repeat steps 1 and 2 as needed. Apply step 3 at all times. Sorry… there are no shortcuts, but don’t be discouraged. Practice and you will see progress.

There you have it… end of class.

gibbon river sunrise

I’ve been thinking too that for someone who claims that photography is much like music, that it exists in a realm that goes beyond words, I sure do put out a lot of words about it. A contradiction? No. Not really…

Life is full of contradictions. The only way to avoid that is to lock yourself away… to shut yourself off from living… to fossilize. I don’t want to merely exist like that, so I’ll continue to contradict myself. I like to think that even though I’m a 60-something, I’m still growing and learning and changing.

When I first started a photography blog back in 2007 I really had no idea where I wanted to go with it or what I wanted to do with it. I wanted to show some new work of course, and thought I wanted to ‘talk shop’ with some other photographers. I soon found that I don’t really want to ‘talk shop’… I’d rather ‘talk life’.

I dumped that blog and started over with this one a little over two years ago. It’s both about photography and not about photography… another apparent contradiction. Photography is my chosen medium, but I’m not interested in cameras and lenses and various gadgets. I couldn’t care less about f-stops and shutter speeds, and never make note of any technical details like that. I’m more interested in life and experiences and thoughts and ideas. I use the camera to put that into visual form. Not in the sense of a visual diary, of here’s where I’ve been  what I’ve done what I’ve seen, but more in the sense of here’s something that struck a chord in me, that moved me to make a photograph of it. I can’t analyze it or explain it… it’s visual music, it lives outside of words.  Sometimes the song works, more often than not it doesn’t. Like I said…  I’m still learning.

After a couple hundred posts, this blog is slowly finding it’s way. It’s where I think out loud… where I can begin to flesh out where my photography comes from, why I do what I do, the living and experiencing behind it. Some of you are interested in this, many more no doubt stumble across it, stifle a yawn, and move on. That’s alright. This blog is what it is, and it will be what it will be. All I can say for sure is that it will continue to change, hopefully grow, and likely contradict itself any number of times through all that.

So stick around. I appreciate all the thoughts and ideas you bring here. We’ll see where the next 200 take us… I hope I can occasionally give you something to think about and chew on.

pj

There’s only one rule in photography – never develop colour film in chicken noodle soup.

- Freeman Patterson

My disdain for rules is no secret, and I got a good chuckle out of the way it was stated here. Well said, Mr. Patterson.

Freeman Patterson says a lot of things well. I read, and re-read, a couple of his books back in my early days of photography. They were of course written for film photography, but they’ve been updated for the digital age and re-released.

I found his work, and his words, to be very freeing and inspiring. It was unique and original… not caught in the usual ruts. Maybe you’ll agree.

Photography and the Art of Seeing: A Visual Perception Workshop for Film and Digital Photography

Photography for the Joy of It: An Introductory Workshop for Film and Digital Photography

bark abstract #3

Hard to believe I’ve been in this apartment for three weeks already, and in LA for a year. Time flies.

I’m pretty well set up for the rest of my stay in LA. My daughter and I went Goodwill and found a great table for my computer and scanner and stuff for about twenty bucks. She’s been wanting to show me the Ikea store for some time now, so we went there for a few things. I got a good chair for the desk, a bookshelf, and a few other small items. My biggest purchase there was a foam sleeping pad. It cost about sixty bucks, but it’s only about two inches thick and is easy to roll up and move. And man, is it comfortable.

So… I have a sleeping pad on the floor in one corner, my computer and books in another, a kitchen to cook in, and a bathroom and shower. Pretty much all I need, though another chair or two and a table to eat at would be good. I’ve never cared much for couches — they’re a pain in the ass to move around, and besides… I already have a place to sleep.

It’s a one bedroom apartment, and my daughter of course claimed that as her own. She loves to decorate and try out new things, and it gives her a blank canvas to experiment with. Pretty cool…

This photo goes back almost a year already, and is a detail from the same tree as my ‘eucalyptus trunk’ photo. Eucalyptus bark may look smooth and textureless at first glance, but there are some amazing patterns and abstract designs in it. Fascinating…