It’s made me realize how rare these things are, both with and without the camera in my hand. The camera has helped me see my way back from that. Maybe that’s the privilege of youth: to squander (money, time, love) and still have the time to recover and do it again. It actually matters just as much when we’re younger, but we just don’t see it. As we get older, this matters more and more. My photography trips so often passed in such a blur of chasing the shot that I missed the bigger picture. More concerned with the quality of his gear than the quality of the moments he was living and, I can see now, so willing to value one more than the other that he had no idea what a high price he was paying to miss those moments he thought would surely repeat themselves. The younger me had no sense of how valuable these moments are. Missed isn’t really the right word squandered is better. Preferring to check his LCD and see if he managed to catch the moment that just passed and so to completely miss the ongoing moment. The younger version of myself, new to digital photography, missed so much of this. And not only that but to anticipate, when possible, the moment as it unfolds: to speculate what might happen not only in the moment but how that might translate to what’s going on in the frame-and the resulting impact on the composition. The job of the photographer is not merely to use a camera really well and hope the rest falls into place it is to be present. And then it’s gone.įor the one interested in finding something astonishing and rare within these moments (and I get that not all photography is as concerned with the slivers of moment that mine is), it is amazing to me that we allow ourselves to be so distracted, to be so frivolous with these moments. What seems like forever in which to make decisions and let our focus wander is often over almost before it begins. It’s fleeting, and it turns in unexpected directions. On the long list of things I would tell my younger self, so eager to learn to make stronger photographs, this would be among the more important: do everything you can to stay aware within the moment. Sensitive to what’s going on around me and, where the creative process is concerned, within me. Not only to stay in it, because the moment, like a riptide, has a pull on us that feels inescapable-we’re in it, no matter what we do-but to remain truly present in it. Among the hardest to learn has been the need to stay in the moment. These are the things I am most interested in-and which push my evolution as a photographer and artist as well as a human being. #Moments in time how to#Once we’re beyond those technical needs, the bigger challenges for most of us are the soft skills: how to think like a photographer. That groundwork was laid a long time ago for me, and it will come for you, too (if it hasn’t been already). I think that long journey of craft is part of what keeps me interested.īut at a certain point, the big challenges aren’t about what shutter speed to use or trying to figure out how to make sharper photographs. My 14-year-old self would be shocked to know what a long, winding, and seemingly endless journey he set in motion for himself (and for me) when he first picked up a camera. The learning curve may flatten out a little and certain skills may come more easily, but after 36 years, I’ve not found myself within sight of the kind of mastery beyond which there is nothing new to learn. You will (I hope) be learning this craft for a very long time.
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