photography

Being Boring

Waiting for Summer

“Turns out the stuff that makes you happy is mostly everyday and boring.” – Hugh MacLeod

My bio says that I use photography as an excuse for adventure. But lately, being boring is far more attractive to me.

It could be getting older, becoming a parent, priorities shifting, all that. Anymore, I feel like simply photographing what I see, around the house, or on a walk, is plenty satisfying.

I look back at my early landscape photography, and all the abandoned work I did, and I recognize the “adventure” involved in making those pictures. Part of me misses that phase of my photography – the hunger to wake up early on a foggy morning and watch the sunrise, making lovely images all the while.

When I get the chance, I still do that kind of stuff. But I don’t actively seek it out anymore. I’m becoming boring.

I still have my portrait projects, and the kids are always great photo subjects. I work on the occasional family portrait session. It’s just that the adventure stuff has taken a backseat.

That’s the great part about photography as a hobby: I don’t have to feel guilt about settling into a groove.

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Photography FOMO

Go Where We Are Needed

As photographers, we’re in constant fear of missing out. That’s why we carry cameras around.

Except that version of FOMO leads to incredible (decisive?) moments, captured. The other version? That one you have to take a break from.

The photographers version? That one leads to adventure and discovery.

No harm in always having a camera handy so you don’t miss out.

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‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ Original Soundtrack

It’s been a year of Zelda at our house.

One year ago today, I purchased a Nintendo Switch, and made The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild the first game in our library. That first Friday night I stayed up until the Switch’s battery ran out, playing this wonderful adventure game.

Since that adventure started one year ago, I’ve been a bit of a Zelda collection hound, grabbing books and figures and merchandise where I can find them. The music, though, has been elusive.

And BoTW’s soundtrack is amazing – one of my favorites ever. Finally, Nintendo released a deluxe package, five discs strong, in the spring. The kicker? It’s only available in Japan right now.

Not that that stopped me.

I’ve been playing the “Hateno Village theme” nonstop for a year now, but now I own a copy – along with all the other great tracks from the game (some standouts include Tarrey Town, Waterside, Riding at Night, and any of the other village themes) in this beautiful collector’s package. After loading the tracks into iTunes, the set makes a nice edition to my Zelda-theme bookshelf.

The set even comes with a little playbutton: like a mini MP3 player that holds the Hyrule Field theme from each Legend of Zelda title. A nice bonus.

With this soundtrack set, it’ll be another year filled with great Zelda tunes at our house.

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People, Places and Things

Break of Day

This June I’m participating in Essa Art’s People, Places & Things exhibition, featuring three local-ish artists presenting those three topics.

Me? I’m taking on the “places” part. In spite of my avoidance of landscape photography, I have enough in the catalog to be noticeable, especially with my focus on our local Michigan landscapes. I’ll be featuring several landscape images from rural areas from my past commutes to and from work. It’s the kind of scenery I don’t see anymore, but I can look back on them and remember how much fun I had taking them.

The gallery is hosting a reception on Saturday, June 9 with all the participating artists. If you’re in the area, and you’re free, I hope to see you there.

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The Spark You Need

The Spark You Need

Wrapping up my latest project, I thought about what kickstarted the whole thing.

It was the film. Lomography advertised a new, limited-run film stock that you had to buy in bulk – 10 boxes an order. That got my brain, and my math, going: 10 boxes of 36 exposure film equals about a year’s worth of shots, if you took one shot per day.

Boom. A project.

Sometimes we don’t need grand ideas for personal projects. Sometimes it’s the gear that sparks an idea.

Grab a cheap-o camera and see what kind of project you can make out of it. Take a simple piece of equipment – a vintage lens, or twin-lens reflex camera – and see where it leads you.

All you need is a spark.

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Twelve Times

Riley

Our youngest, Riley, turned one this week.

So this week, like every month this past year, we’ll set her up in a little photo shoot, and take a bunch of pictures. Every month is labelled with a little sticker we put on her. Doing this, we have 12 portraits of our baby through the year.

At the minimum, 12 good photos of your baby in a year is pretty good. I shoot a bunch more of her, but I know that each month we at at least get one, and we make it a ritual: change her outfit, the backdrop, put props in, that kind of thing.

The fun part? Going through and seeing the photos sequentially, from the start. There’s our Riley, one year ago, with a hint of who she would be 12 months later. There’s the first time she sat up on her own. There’s the one with the drool…

I’d like to say we kept our ritual going with the other two kids after they passed 12 months. But babies really are easier to pose, and goodness knows I take plenty of the other two doing their kid things. It’s fine. At least we have those first 12 months.

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Fixed On Prizes

Follow You Follow Me

“There are too many awards and prizes for any of them to make sense any longer, yet people still have their eyes fixed on them,” says Jörg M. Colberg. So what makes a successful photo?

It’s not where it appears, or how many awards it earns, Colberg argues. Success is derived from intent – in achieving a goal.

I know it’s easy to fall into the awards abyss, especially the seeking. I used to love it when a random Tumblr photo blog would feature my stuff. It felt like worthwhile recognition, when really it meant nothing. Another photo would replace it in the blog stream, and the handful of people who saw it wouldn’t think much of it. Rinse, repeat.

What did matter to me was earning recognition from a body of work. That took effort, doing research, talking to subjects, planning out the project, thinking about my audience, and pounding the pavement to get the word out. The project was more than a group of photos with a goal – it was the whole workload.

We see “award-winning photographer” enough, don’t we? How about “completed successful project that mattered photographer?”

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Finding Your Likes

Slowly Giving Way

Photographs I enjoy taking:

  • Portraits of characters in my community
  • Slashes of light in darkness
  • Scenes of small, quiet moments around the house
  • Colorful scenes around the city
  • The change of seasons here in Michigan

Photos I don’t enjoy so much:

  • Lanscapes
  • Birds and wildlife
  • Traditional street photography

Things I’ve tried and am still working out:

  • Still life
  • Abandoned buildings and homes
  • Wedding and event photography

I can only make a list like this by actually trying out these types of photography. That means experimenting, testing, doing something over and over again to see if it catches.

It also means stumbling into something, with no warning or preparation, and loving it by chance. My light and shadow stuff developed slowly, over time, and only by looking back and seeing a theme did I realize the kind of work I wanted to make.

Finding your likes may mean finding your dislikes as well.

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