A two-fer today. And some word play and double entendres.
I’ve been watching and following the developments in the Kiev, in the Crimea, in Caracas, in Bangkok, and other places. People demonstrating in the streets; people protesting, attempting to right some wrongs; people attempting to write the future of their countries. People clashing, protesting, resisting, fighting against overwhelming – and man made –forces. People hoping. People dying.
There is something about the Asian aesthetic that I just love. I live in a land dominated by Catholic Christian mythology, rites, and art which I am slowly appreciating. But there is always something calming and peaceful for me in Asian religious artwork. These bells were a gift to me and reside in my office.
A young Indian cowboy sits alone and brooding high in the stands at the International Indian Finals Rodeo in Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 2012.
The contestants wait all evening for the shot at glory. Whether it be a barrel race lasting nearly a minute, a team calf roping event lasting half a minute, or the eternity that 8 seconds can seem on the back of a raging bull, they have one chance in the evening to pull off a great ride or to suffer abject defeat and possible injury.
I don’t know what led this young cowpoke to brood so: a poor ride; a father’s scolding; the mocking of friends. But it was clear he needed to be with his own thoughts for a while.
The International Indian Finals Rodeo drew competitors from Calgary, from Hopi, from Mescalero Apache, from Navajo and from many in between, with each competitor carrying the pride of their tribe on their shoulders. In addition, they carried the pride of Native, First Nation’s People.
There were not many spectators. A few curious attendees, but mostly the sense was that the stands were populated with the competitors’ family members. But I tell you, the competitors were as good as they come.
The problem with being a creative is not always the lack of ideas; the problem with being a creative is sometimes too many ideas. Ted Orland, in Art and Fear, a book he co-wrote with David Bayles, mentions that often times the problem is better identified as a lack of creative discipline regarding the ideas. We get overrun by them and they can get it the way of actually creating and completing projects.
The other day I complained to my wife that I hadn’t had enough time to go out and photograph what I wanted. Her reply was not what I expected. Nor was it what I wanted to hear, “yeah, but you’re getting better at shooting what you CAN shoot…!!”
Ouch, but true!
What she meant was I was getting better at photographing our kids and our family life. She’s right. If I keep at something, keep studying, keep applying myself, learn new techniques and ways of seeing or interpreting, the images get better – mostly because I get better as a photographer and editor. And that means something.
All of us are limited by our life situation. We like to think we are free, and we like to yearn for more freedom. But we are as free as we are and lots can be done with that. The challenge often is not necessarily to strive for greater freedom, for greater access, for more time, for more gear, for more, for more…; rather the challenge is to focus on what is possible. To dream what is possible where others might not see it.
There is a story I heard years ago about a woman in India who was revered as a meditation teacher. Early in her life she had married and her husband forbade her to practice formal meditation. She acquiesced. But still she somehow practiced. When asked much later in her life about how she managed to develop such strong meditative practices and such great inner peace without formal practice she answered, as many meditation teachers will, with a question: “what is meditation?”
Her students dutifully responded, “the practice of paying attention in this moment and this moment only.”
She then continued, “and so, when I stirred the rice, I stirred the rice; When I swept the floor I swept the floor; and when I ate, I ate.”
She did what she could with what she had, and she perfected her practice.
What can you do in this moment, in this situation, to practice photography despite your situation? What can you do without changing anything externally, but rather turning your attention to what you CAN do. Can you focus there? (Pun not intended.)
I can’t always photograph what I want to photograph, but I sure can photograph what is available to me. And can you guess which option will actually result in an image – perhaps even a good one?
In my previous post I showed a quick series about the Geese and Sand Hill cranes at Bosque del Apache, a National Wildlife Refuge about an hour south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s a photographer magnet.
We had found a field full of birds, out of which came the images in the previous post, but soon they decided to move on to their nighttime location.
We decided jump ahead of the birds to go to an area known as “The Flight Deck.”
The “Flight Deck” is an observation station placed in the flooded fields at a favorite resting spot for the birds. Word has it that thousand of birds usually spend the night here…as well as several zealous photographers. This time the birds landed at a neighboring field without a deck. They tend to do that if there are predators nearby. So all that was left was a gaggle of photographers with impossibly large lenses, the water, and the sunset.
Recently I posted a review of my goals from 2011 and found that I had ticked off most of them. Great. I got to feel a momentary sense of pride of accomplishment. But something was lacking a bit. At first I couldn’t recognize what it was but eventually, as I thought about it more, I came to realize that my checklist of accomplished goals for the last year failed to tell the fuller story of my photographic year. You see, I accomplished more than just my checklist. I learned a lot by surprise along the way.
Yes, I was focused on my goals, but not so much that I failed to pay attention to other opportunities which presented themselves along the way. Not only did my skills as a photographer grow, but my focus, intention, and attention all grew as well.
You see, for a long time my focus in photography was what is “out there”, outside of me and outside of my community. I wanted to photograph what was exotic, foreign, new, distant. My focus was on distant lands, distant ideas. But then I read Close to Home by Stuart Sipahigil (listed here on the Craft & Vision website.)
Close to Home has become a highly regarded and highly quoted book in the past year. In it Stuart turns his attention to a challenge many-if not most-amateur photographers have: making compelling images out of their “ordinary lives”-close to home. People loved it! From what I understand it is one of the bestselling titles from Craft and Vision this past year, and rightly so.
But Stuart’s book influenced me in a slightly different way. I wasn’t just looking for a way to make compelling images close to home, I was looking for a direction for my photography as a whole. I was searching for meaning in my photography. I was becoming less content making singular images of pretty stuff. I was wanting my photography to mean something more-if not to others, then to myself. And as I sat and thought about what I wanted to do with my photography I realized I was limited by my current life situation.
My young family and job prevent me from traveling to distant lands (Mexico, Vietnam, Thailand, Peru) to photograph exotic people in exotic locales. I am pretty firmly planted in New Mexico-a land I’ve inhabited for 16 years and feel pretty familiar with. But then, as I thought more about what Stuart was encouraging in his book I started to ask myself what I could photograph-what I would be excited to photograph-near home? And suddenly I realized, “holy cow, I live in NEW MEXICO!!!” This land is filled with the exotic, the new, the interesting, the fascinating, the joyful, the sorrowful, the pain, the hardship, the beauty, the sky, the sun, the mountains, the dust, the tumbleweeds, the cacti, the outdoors, the drugs, the mix of cultures…..well, you get it, right? This land is fascinating and enchanting and filled with wondrous stories of people and cultures and art and music and life!
And out of this was born the idea of my Tierra Encantada Project as well as my direction, purpose, meaning, and excitement-to try to tell the story of New Mexico as I know it. To try to show you, the viewer and reader, what this land is like and about. To try to point you toward why this is an enchanting place.
So, if you haven’t read Stuart’s book, Close to Home, do so! If you have read it, make a point to read it again. It is not a long book, but its depth is palpable. And I have heard from a small bird that he is working on another book due out possibly this Spring; I can’t wait!
Note: Those of you involved in the photography scene may be aware that my new friend and Blurb photographer at large Daniel Milnor (aka Smogranch) is also working on a very similar project. His work is absolutely fantastic and if you haven’t seen it go follow his tumblr blog where he is being completely transparent about the project’s process and progress for the sake of his subjects-people who would not otherwise see the results of their portraits. Also check out this video of him at work here in NM. He and I met recently and shared ideas on our projects. It is great fun to watch how he approaches the same subjects and what he comes away with. At first I was concerned I would be repeating what he’s already doing, but he comes from outside the state and sees things in a much different way than I do. That combined with his mega years of experience, his photography education, his outgoing nature, and the fact that he tends to shoot with a Leica means his work is going to look wayyyyyy different from mine. Can you tell I’m a fan? Still, I hesitated when he began to make his project public until I realized I could not deny the push inside that drives me to work on this project.
All of these images were made after meeting with Daniel in Santa Fe with my manual film camera, a Pentax K1000. All except the second-that was shot in my driveway. Talk about close to home!
Today is the day I set out some photographic goals for myself. I do so with some excitement as well as some anxiety. After all, I realize I am not fully in charge of this life and many things can happen to get me off course. I don’t want to end up 2012 looking back at this list feeling I have failed. I know that although my hopes for the year exist, the year will also look very different from what I imagine.
So why do this?
Well, quite simply put, I am distractible. Easily distractible. And I need reminding, much reminding, to focus on what I would like to achieve, who I want to be, and how I want my life to be. So this list, these goals/hopes/aspirations, are put forth with the idea that I will review them periodically and they will help me to refocus. There are also items here I long to get involved in which take some planning and foresight, so this voicing of my intention helps to pave the long road toward those items.
Where was I?
Oh, that’s right! Goals!
So here we go: I’ve arranged these in the manner suggested by Steve Simon in his wonderful book, The Passionate Photographer. If you haven’t read it, do. Making this list in this manner, with these categories, has helped them be more focused and I hope will lead to more accomplishment, and therefore more joy.
Photographic Project Goals:
Artistic Goals:
Technical Improvement Goals:
Equipment Goals:
(Note: having written this before the new year and posting it here a week or so later, I have noticed that my “Equipment” list is short and-frankly-I don’t really “need” anything on it. The first three items would be nice and would help some with my vision of some images I want, but I can manage without them. The last three goals are just wants. I have what I need in terms of stuff. What I really need is more time to work on my projects, not more equipment.)
What about you? Do you have goals, dreams, aspirations? Are there things you would like to feel you have accomplished, created, enjoyed in the coming year? What point on the compass does you heart set?