Snappy: July 22-27
Make It Snappy July 22-27 2014
Tuesday 22 July 2014
I love writing. I really, really do. That's why I'm going to trial a new form of shorter blogging, small thoughts, the many that I have that never really translate into a long-winded rant or discussion. I need to start working on this more, as a daily activity if you will. So here's the plan... I'll write a paragraph or two each day and post it in a thread for the week. If you want to read what's happening, instead of creating hundreds of individual daily threads, I'll just do it all in one. I've titled this section "Make It Snappy" because that's exactly what it is. The musings, the business, the imagery, the trends, happenings, everything!
Just like taking your daily vitamin, just like having a shower, I'm going to add this into my routine. I don't mind if you wish to comment, to share, (in fact, please do) because this is, as has always been with my posts, for me in the very first instance. Much like the enjoyment of the first cup of warm caffeine, on a cold morning.
Wednesday 23 July
Sometimes I think us landscape photographers are living in some kind of fantasy world. We dream of the day we finally make enough money to quit our jobs and leave the real world behind. Sadly, those days are gone, and many of us fall back to reality with a dull thud. Art, as a service, is rapidly becoming devalued by the perception that the things we do are not worthy of money, (or at least its manufactured value) that any body could do it, even the very clients, if they had the time. There's days that I count my lucky stars, and then ones where I wonder why I try to make a dollar anymore.
Life is getting more expensive, equipment readily available, and with it, an abundance of dodgy operators and clients seeking discounted goods. Cost over quality. The problem is the over saturation of work out there, that one cheap operator after another is competing in a reverse auction for a clients' dollar.
Maybe if I registered as a charity I'd finally make the money that I'm worth...?
Thursday 24 July
As all creative solutions go, this was by far the most clever and hilarious that I had ever witnessed. Rewind back to Sunday afternoon, Timothy Poulton and I stood on the shoreline at Gorokan, before us was this most spectacular architectural wonder, a decrepit, pelican poop-soaked jetty, only just protruding from the still, murky quagmire. The area reeked of stale fish, no doubt a by-product of the fish market behind us.
The boardless jetty, worn from years of exposure to avian and human intervention, was now a trophy of the feathered-fiends takeover, and by gosh those birds were not moving in a hurry. We tried rocks, we tried sticks, and we traded our dignity and flapped our arms about and made annoying sounds. It did not work.
Defeated, we went off for lunch, when Tim had a stroke of genius. Now, with eyes on the prize we ran into the store, much to the amusement of the clerks, and purchased our goods. We had proclaimed that we had a bird issue, and had found a non-violent way to rectify it. Marching back to the shore, once again fronting the birds, this time with coloured guns, we took aim….
And we failed miserably.
But only just.
For you see, that it was not water pistol season, the best guns were yet to hit the shelves, that in all of our bravado we’d been over-confident, and our water pistols were not capable of such a range. The birds stood there, no doubt wondering how humans were indeed smarter than they, laughing in their own language. In an act of surrender, for now at least, I set up my tripod and shot. Knowing that sometime in summer, we will be back!
Friday 25 July
Being an Australian, it's ingrained into my soul to know what a backyard is, and what it also means.
To most, it is the green space outside of the house, usually containing your washing line, some plants, maybe some other misc junk, a patio or "verandah" and a table setting for soaking up the humid atmosphere whilst continuing to wage the war against all things that make annoying noises and dart around you, seeking out your blood, otherwise known as mozzies.
But to a Photographer, their backyard is their local area. Usually defined given how familiar they are with it, my backyard encases anywhere in South East Queensland, stretching north to about Noosa and down to the border of Queensland and New South Wales. I've been living in this backyard, for my entire life. To be honest, I'm getting a little bored of it. I know this must happen to everyone, it surely has to.
My mother warned me when I got back from Iceland in 2012 that I would become bored of what Queensland had to offer, and sometimes, I hate to admit that she was right. Increasingly I'm feeling more compelled to go out to "just to see what I can get", for a special reason - ie, storm, weather event or social catch up.
For this, I feel guilty. Some would say that I'm lucky to live where I do. Having invested so heavily in equipment and in planning for my trips this year, you'd think that I'd constantly want to get out and shoot. While sometimes this is the case, often, I feel there isn't much waiting for me, that I haven't seen already. Maybe it's a rut, maybe it's about accepting what I've got and dealing with it.
Holidays and time away couldn't come soon enough.
Saturday 26 July
I often wonder if there's anything that I'm missing out on by not trying to photograph sunrise or sunset each and every day of a weekend. I know those who study the charts like eagles waiting for prey, watching and lying in wait for the perfect fog, cloud or clear skies. Then there's those, who, like me, don't particularly mind, because there's bigger things in the works than just being a sunrise or sunset landscape photographer.
I don't live for the sunrises, quite frankly, I find limited interest in photographing just these alone. I think there is such thing as a sunrise/sunset photographer, these people fall into the Landscape category, but they're so much more specialized that they themselves, probably don't even realize it. There's nothing wrong with this however, I think it shows remarkable persistence and patience to be able to continually reinvent locations that change with the seasons... Do you think you can be just a sunrise/sunset photographer and still be considered a professional? Is it too niche?
Sunday 27 July
Today I drove through the most luscious, velvetly (but slightly eerie) thick fog that I have ever seen.
Never before have I come up behind cars doing 40kmh in the 100kmh zone simply because even their high beams were not enough.
But the funniest part of all this, when I reached my location - nothing, no fog in sight.
So today became a jump around, here, there, this road, that road, all the roads, following and chasing the great simplifier... fog!
It lasted and lasted, the sun just couldn't penetrate its ground-hogging hold on the land.
Eventually though, through a mixture of exhaustion and hunger, I gave up the fight and took myself home.
There's only so much fog a girl can take!
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How'd you like this week?
Got anything you'd like me to cover next week?
Join in the discussion below!