A Year of Photographic Thinking

Jan 6
3 min read

Updated: 22 hours ago

My day-to-day work is largely virtual.

I sit at my desk and communicate with a distributed team over video, email, and chat, talking about projects in places it would take me a day to get to by car and plane and strategies so large-scale and involved, they can’t be done by one person or team or even community alone.

This year, I am pursuing an antidote.

The demands of photography can be tangible and immediate. The steps of the process can be packaged in right-sized steps that allow for the feeling of progress and reward: researching and planning the shoot, preparing the gear, getting out "there," capturing a range of shots, both planned and spontaneous, sorting the images, editing, and then ruthlessly choosing only the ones that create the arc of a story with drama, insight, and multiple perspectives.

But most importantly, photography allows for a direct connection to the world and a focus on the moments that are easy to overlook. For me at least, it's about slowing down and taking time with a subject--whether it's a bucolic landscape, a hummingbird, or a group of fishers at work. It's about observing behavior and context, moving around to see things from different angles, and returning again and again to find different moods and light.

I've taken a lot of pictures in my life. Sometimes for work and many many times for personal reasons. With phones able to produce such good imagery these days, I have fallen out of the habit of carrying my larger mirrorless camera. It's been years since I lugged around the massive DSLR I used to document conserved places, wildlife, and the human element. As a photo editor in my day jobs, I've had lots of practice weaving together the imagery that is the best available, tapestries of both polished shots on fancy cameras and impromptu moments in the field captured on point-and-shoots and everything in between.

When behind the lens, I have typically preferred to photograph by feel, letting the camera do the thinking about shutter speed and aperture so I can concentrate on the composition. And I've had decent luck. I've had my photos published in few small outlets. (I swear I've done better than that time in elementary school when I took my tiny new automatic camera to class and recess and clicked photos with happy abandon, filling the roll of film with 24 shots of nothing special—or so my mother, an artist herself, likes to remind me.)

But it's time for a change. I returned from a trip to Costa Rica with some semi-decent photos and a new resolve to tackle the exposure triangle and take more control of my gear and my creative options.

I enrolled in a photography certificate and will be deliberate about creating mini photo projects for myself throughout the year. I hope my photography will be better for it. But if nothing else, it will give me time to focus on the here and now.

In those moments of intense observation and technique, I will focus on the joy of discovery and the things that make this world such an amazing place to live.

Projects to Date