Down on one knee, between the tennis court and park perimeter fence, ducking under a tree branch completely focused on my camera viewfinder, I’m photographing a tiny green plant that would go unnoticed by everyone else who’s walked past. I’m completely enraptured by the reflection of the water droplet that’s collected on each leaf and is reflecting the sky. For me time doesn’t exist. I’m not alone in the park, but in some version of flow-state, I’m in my own world, completely relaxed and content. Whether anyone ever sees these photos doesn’t really matter, the act of capturing images is point.
That’s why I take photographs. Simultaneous focus and relaxation. Sharing them is optional.
I want to remember that feeling as I get deeper into photography. As I learn the intricate details of the tech and art. When I get to the point where I’m sharing them with others who will criticize or troll them. Remember that it’s really about the joy of observation and the challenge of documenting what I find.
For the past twenty years my job has been at a desk working through thousands of lines of computer code attempting to create whatever application feature I’ve been told to build. Sometimes it was satisfying, but mostly it’s been hard. Sometimes a little like banging my head against a wall until I break through. Photography as a source of income seems like a nice change from that. At least part of the time. Of course there is photo management, editing, business accounting, emails, etc, but it’s not applied math on a deadline. Or could it just be a hobby to relieve me of time spent coding. I’m just following my curiosity to see where it takes me.
Last fall I decided to start taking photography more seriously and purchased a Mirrorless Canon M50 mark II and some lenses. While there’s great information to be found on YouTube and books from the library, without a graduated learning structure and assignments I didn’t think I’d achieve the progress I wanted so I signed up for a course at San Diego City College, PHOT 143: Introduction to Digital Photography. I also purchased a Udemy class: Affinity Photo: Complete Guide to Photo Editing in Affinity.
I plan to post my photos and experience of learning on this blog. I’ll record photo session details including day, time, location, conditions, what I was attempting, what I learned, some photos I liked and some that did not turn out how I’d like.
Let’s see how far I can take this.