travel

Progression

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This week, there is an assignment to complete. The deliverable is a 7-minute (maximum) Pecha Kucha-style reflective presentation. The slides and commentary must take the audience on my photographic journey.

I started photography by taking record shots of various birds I saw on my travels. Some birds might be very common, while others might be unusual or in an unusual location. And for these, the powers that be like to see a record shot. I wouldn’t need it for my gull, but I might for an American Robin in London. As you can imagine, these shots are often snatched glimpses of a moving target. Composition and lighting aren’t priorities.

So I had many (thousands) images (snapshots) of various birds and actually other wildlife captured over many years.

As I have become more interested in photography, so the range of subjects I have approached has expanded.

I have become experimental at times, looking at colour and shadows. This umbrella caught my eye in Montreal.

And I have picked up on themes; one project photographing alleys in Boston (above) and other major cities.

My approach has evolved. My photography has become more thoughtful, and I now make far fewer images. This is partly because I ask whether the scene adds value to a potential audience, and partly because each image takes longer to compose now. This is a very good thing. I still have a long way to go – but I have some idea of the road ahead.

Now…..onto that slide deck.

Wrestling with ideas

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The welcome week is over. I have attended introductory webinars and alternated between feeling motivated and excited and asking, “Do I belong here?” Hopefully I belong.

I went out to a local town and, as is my way, took a small camera with me. I spent some time walking around the market and “seeing” what stood out. “Seeing” means more to someone studying this course than to others. It is not “looking” — it is more than that. I was drawn to the scene in the image above by two distinct elements. Firstly, the wrestling posters.

They could have been taken from earlier times. The ticket pricing would be the giveaway. I like “Dropkickingly Brilliant” and “Suitable for all ages” despite people being thrown all over the place. But there is something else here: the wider image sets the context for the type of event. This is not WWF in a major arena; this is a very local event. And I liked the arrangement of the crates. But perhaps the most interesting part of my thought process (and I attribute this to my recent reading) was that I could not fit the yellow trolley into the frame with my camera, so I switched to my iPhone and got a wider angle. Seeing vs. looking? Maybe, maybe not, but the thinking is there, and I will take that at this stage.

The second key element is the light. In the wider image, the bananas and onions (and the yellow trolley) are on stage, and the shaft of light adds value to the scene in my view. In the close-up (this is a crop of the camera image), it could be used to produce a presentable square image, and I will return to this at some point.

I am already wondering whether I will look back on this image in two years and shake my head. I hope not; the scene made me smile and think regardless.