January 2014

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I'm playing fast and loose with the format for my photo updates. 

Also, I don't really intend for this blog to be a photoblog, regardless of the evidence of the past year. I do have a few ideas for non-photography related posts, but photography has dominated my thoughts and free time for quite a while. That's going to change this year, due both to impending life changes (and consequently, schedule changes) as well as a stubborn desire to work out my thoughts on current events and culture in this public space (it's my blog, after all).

But as I mentioned before, I do intend to continue making semi-regular posts absent a formal "Project 52" structure this year, and the format will likely be via monthly posts displaying the photos I think best show what I saw or what I wanted to see or what I want t the viewer to see. 
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Dinosaurs Overhead

I've always loved dinosaurs. (Well, that's not entirely true. I didn't really love Jurassic Park as a kid. I was interested in dinosaurs as fossils and pictures and facts on a page; I wasn't really so much into the Discovery Channel on crack-infused steroids.) And AMNH is a must-see whether you're visiting NYC or if you actually live here.

Land of the Free

 I'll admit, there's a lot going on in this photo; probably too much. I camped out in front of this video American flag and caught this guy looking over his shoulder as he went by, just past the security cameras.

Winter Jam 1

Winter Jam 2

Winter Jam returned to Central Park (link to the 2013 Winter Jam "52 Project" Post). I came this year with the intent of measuring my improvement at tracking and focusing and capturing snowboarders. But the new camera body rendered that exercise moot, since I was mostly unfamiliar with my gear, still.

I got to focusing on this one little kid (in "2"), who was clearly a beginner. He didn't get a ton of air, and seemed to be still learning somewhat to snowboard, let alone pull off any tricks. You could see him get frustrated and pout every now and then; but he would always get back up the hill, either trudging or hustling. No one magically becomes Shaun White; there's a lot of hustle and trudge in the interim. Giving me a smile and a metaphor would probably have meant nothing to him; but I hope he gets it right, and rocks on, soon.

"The Gap"

This is actually a few years old, but it's been making the rounds amongst the photography blogs I follow. And I love it. I transcribed it and tucked the words away, and whenever I would pull it back up and read it, it's inspired me to keep on, particularly as it relates to how I think of doing photography:

"You gotta know it's totally normal. 

The most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week, every month, you know that you're going to finish one story. 

It's only by actually going through a volume of work that you're actually going to catch up and close that gap, and the work you're making will be as good as your ambitions. It takes a while. It's going to take you a while, it's normal to take a while, and you just have to fight your way through that."

And yeah, I know that this is basically Gladwell minus the pop science. But I do believe that practice is the best way to improvement and "success" (in quotations, because it depends on how you define it). It's about practice. (No really, practice, Allen Iverson!)

Sharon says I'm too hard on myself. In many ways she's right, because I am, about many aspects of my life. But she also says that about the way I judge my photography output. Perhaps I'm harsh; but I know what I like, and I know when I've reviewed photos that I took and realized that none of them are quite to my liking or have fallen short, as Ira says in the video.

But this is a reminder not to defeat myself just because I haven't reached a point where I'm "satisfied" or certain that my work matches my ambitions (and it hasn't; not by a long shot). I really appreciate when people tell me they think a photo I took is great. But I also know I'm working towards something. I don't have so many hours a day to devote to this, but it's something I've identified to myself as a passion, and it's something for which I have ambitions for myself. I'm just working my way through The Gap, as Ira calls it.

Come join me in The Gap?