Step by Step - leads to understanding
Week 1 of the Mentorship program is already over.
Hard to believe.
This time it was more reflecting and writing about oneself, instead of taking photos. It's a good start. Putting things into words that effect me personally isn't my greatest strength.
At least I got back to taking Photos. And having fun doing so :-)
For the ones interested, we had to write an open letter to Ron, our mentor in the mentorship program.
Here's what I put together:
Dear Ron,
During the past few months I have lost my mojo and I hadn’t picked up the camera in weeks. I expect the program to motivate me again, which it already did.
Other than that I want to learn to see things differently, or show them differently. That was one major step stone during the last mentorship program and I expect that we can look forward to something similar this time.
I want to be able to show the magic I see in nature better, than I did in the last few years. Maybe via techniques or via correcting things I do wrong in camera usage (wrong lens aperture, ISO, etc.). Not sure if the latter will be part of the program, but I am sure whatever comes along will help me in the future.
I am currently struggling with showing the magic. I am showing nature, I am showing photos, I assume people like, but I am missing something in them. It would be great to find better ways and options to get them in there.
Since 2004 I have seldom let my camera out of my hands. I find it fascinating to show people the world I live in. Be it the nature, wildlife, architecture, animals or decay. At first it helped me remember the places we had been to, stories to go along with the photos. It soon developed into something more. I wanted to show beautiful photos with a bit more artsy skill behind them. I looked at how others did it and soon developed my own ways a bit farther down the road from simple snap shooting. I still love to show the world around me and that is why the camera usually isn’t far from me.
I love to shoot nature (landscapes, wildlife – usually birds, macro). I would really love to dig deeper into this subject by getting the ‘right’ gear for great bird photos and landscape photography.
I also like architecture in cultures, hence old buildings, temples, monuments, etc. and people from various cultures. I am not exactly good at architectural photos though and a bit shy when it comes to Portraits.
If money weren’t’ an issue, I would start a class in photography to learn it from scratch, I would get the best gear I could lay my hands on afterward and would travel the world. I would capture the wild nature of places, the cultural heritage and it’s people. Before it gets all lost due to human stupidity.
As far as Self discovery goes, the pattern I can find is, that nature always has been a part of my photography. Trees in all forms, flower, insect close ups, wildlife in general. Colours were usually ‘normal’ tones, pretty close to the natural vista (not over saturated, etc.) and cropping changed only in bits with developing skill and eye. I was also drawn to architecture (houses, monuments, way crosses). Usually something out of the ordinary catches my eyes, some decay, something quirky and I feel like capturing it – or try at least.
As for the pinning part, I am drawn to beautiful images with colours and some sort of magic in them. Great clarity and crisp details. Speed pinning draws me pretty much to the same photos. In the few Portraits I have pinned, it’s the personality of the people and also the crispness and quality that has drawn me. Those were usually fascinating characters where the photo alone already talks a volume.
Here's the link to said Pinterest board:
http://pinterest.com/nicolebphoto/inspiration/
And here's a link Ron provided us with, well worth the 10 minutes watching for anyone who is into photography:
http://www.zarias.com/transform-a-short-film-for-scottkelbycom/
