09-18-16

Day 262 / 627 – Balboa Park, San Diego, CA

Yesterday was the 500px Global Photo Walk, and I joined around 50 photographers roaming around Balboa Park for the shoot.

I was really unhappy with what I wound up with.  I came away with about 100 shots, and I like hardly any of them.  I barely like the one above.

Which is actually a good thing.

Walking around in a group of photographers (or, thanks to my currently broken ankle, rolling along with my knee scooter) is not how I like to take photos.  It doesn’t allow me the room to do what I do when I take photos.  Photo walks can be fun.  You meet other photographers of all types. There can be – but not always – a sense of camaraderie.  I’ve done them in Durham, Chicago, and Columbus, which was my first and best one.  I am signed up for one at the beginning of October, but I don’t think I will do many more of them.

I believe that, if you are going to do something well, you should have a philosophy or idea about how you should do that thing.  For a writer, that could mean your style of writing, your working times, why you write what you write, or whatever choices you make about your writing.  If it comes from a philosophy, it will have a stronger impact on you, and you can turn to it when you need something to keep you going or direct you.  Having a reason why you do something strengthens how well you do that thing.

For me, I figured out a few things that work for me.  I believe that my number one job as a photographer is to find something I feel something about, and try to put that feeling into what I shoot.  That feeling is where my voice and my style comes from.  Sometimes it’s a deep feeling, sometimes it’s surface amusement.  It doesn’t always have to be profound, but the feeling has to be there.

But that also takes a bit of time in the moment.  It might mean I sit there for a little bit, thinking about what this particular moment or scene means to me.  Maybe I am able to get swept up in the moment.  Driving down a dirt road, maybe I see something that catches my eye, and I have to turn around and go back, the excitement of seeing something interesting taking me back.

Photo walks don’t afford that kind of time.  You are often on a set path, and move with the crowd, shooting the same thing everyone else is.  Sure, a good photographer can compose a nice photo almost anywhere, but that doesn’t mean it will speak to what they believe, how they feel, and what their intentions are.

I say the words ‘maybe’ and ‘might’ a lot here.  There are no guarantees when it comes to how you feel.  You can’t demand or schedule a feeling  I went out in the streets of San Diego a few days ago (not an easy task at the moment), and I didn’t even turn on my camera.  There was nothing I wanted to shoot.  Nothing made me feel in a way that I wanted to take a picture.

Sometimes, that’s the way it goes, but I believe that the more you do it, the easier it is to open your heart and mind up to the things you see and want to photograph.  I believe that is the case with everything creative.  You sit down to write, and the more you do it, the easier it becomes to open up to the good writing, to getting how you feel out on the page.  And you will slide back as you get better, realizing that the next hill is a little steeper, a little higher and harder to climb.  And then the next breakthrough comes, and on and on.

So while this photo walk wasn’t what I would consider a success as far as photos are concerned, it did solidify my own belief in how I do my work, and how I shoot.  And that is something good to take away from it.