I can’t really start at the end because that would mean I’m done with life so I’ll start where I am today and hope this works out.
I am a 63 year old husband and father still loving life and my family. I don’t know about my fellow man anymore due to all the things I’ve seen and experienced in my life, specially in this day and age of digital immediacy, but I have hope that somehow we will go back to a time when life was valued and people meant more than a “like” on social media. I guess this is how I perceive America being great again. It’s ironic to think this way about technology because just a few decades ago I started my own tech company and my life was all about hard drives, ram, video cards and code. Not so much today. Although I still use technology extensively I also try to incorporate analog every chance I get. Today I am afraid of the latest incarnation, AI and what it can bring to an already digitally saturated environment. For the past twenty years or so I’ve been watching people involved or rather consumed with all sorts of technology and how they use it in their personal lives almost as much or more than in their business life. When I worked in Hollywood over two decades ago as a photographer I used to complain to my wife that the younger kids and some adults, would come to a photo session with their Game Boys and iPhones, yes, the iPhone 1 was just getting a foothold back then and in Hollywood everyone had one. I would see these otherwise normal adults and their kids from places like Oklahoma, Ohio, South Dakota, and other mid western states who came from smaller towns than the one I live in today of barely 1800 people embrace the Hollywood lifestyle quickly and whole heartedly. I couldn’t understand how a person could change so quickly and become someone they’ve only ever seen on the big screen or on television. It was like a switch was turned on or something.
I still photograph people today but on my spare time I capture landscapes and wild animals. This is what I do now when I’m not capturing people. I love to go to a place I’ve never been to before and get lost for hours. I photograph everything I see it seems, and never get bored. It’s like the forest offers endless photographic opportunities for me. I’ve never felt this way in my life and to be honest I used to laugh at landscape photographers when I was in Hollywood. We had a saying about those types of photographers, that’s what they do when they can’t work in the real world anymore. I was wrong! That’s what they do when they don’t have to work in the real world and there is a huge difference.
Photographing animals is almost as difficult as photographing people. They move just as much and they all have their own personality which sometimes is a gift and other times becomes difficult. Some animals are so vein they seem to be posing for me but I know that can’t be true right?
Landscapes on the other hand are much easier to capture but still offers great complexity. There are times when I see a scene and think that’s great! Two minutes later it’s gone! Sometimes it gets worse. There are times when I set out to shoot an area I’ve been to before and have an idea of what I want to create but either the weather or something else gets in the way and I get nothing or at least not what I thought in my mind. Pictures are one thing and images are totally different in my humble opinion. A picture is quick and ready before you even bring the camera to your eye. An image is something you first create in your head and then go out and try to recreate it with your camera. Sometimes everything just clicks and you are presented with a gift from nature. I can;t tell you how many times I’ve tried to create something that’s in my head and end up frustrated and walking away, and other times when I get what I was thinking or better.
I spend a lot of time just sitting and thinking about the shot. It’s not always easy but is always very rewarding. I guess this is better than spending time with a stranger that charges $100 bucks an hour! I’m referring to a therapist and not one of those from the “oldest profession” folks, get your head out of the gutter.