My brother Jerry told me this when we were teens. The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same Ya know how things resonate within and without you? Well, this fired up the resonating procedures for a long time, in fact still does. One day I was sitting back and listening to Al Stewart. I heard him sing this lyric and to this day, I can’t figure out how Al Stewart got Jerry’s lyrics. I never saw Al at our home and for sure Jerry never went to England. It baffles me to this minute.
I’ve had other miraculous moments in my life. I won’t bore y’all with the things that amazed me in life. I just hope your open to the magic of what you breathe.
I remember clearly the first time I developed a roll of film. I was around 13 and in the basement of our home. I picked the roll up and looked closely and saw images. I mean WOW!… I actually saw images that I brought to light. I was Merlin of the Image and this was my domain. It was a feeling that totally encompassed my essence. It placed my internal compass in a direction that I felt natural and that I knew my future. The sweet beauty of that reality is present every time I release the shutter.
In fact, just the essence of making photos keeps me alive. I used to snicker at ppl that sat back on the couch, drink beer, and watch football all the time. What a waste of time I thought. I felt they were missing life mainly because they didn’t have a camera. THE HORROR! As time passed, I mean decades, covid and politics entered my photography, I started coming to the realization that I was ok and not too crazy but LIFE was and is crazy. It’s easier to just let things pass and have little effect on you. There’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t see it as surrendering but see it as, “I can’t do anything about this crap, so leave me alone.”
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
What does this have to do with photography? Ok, I’ll explain my position. If making photos is a creative outlet, then the energy required is doing the in and out procedures. Energy enters our mind and heart and we process thru and around it to get output, namely photos. Maybe carrying a camera and making photos is our way of detaching from the crap. I think there are many ways to detach things. But, truth be told, when I’m on the streets, I see homeless all over and it upsets me deeply. Here are people living with about nothing and they are unseen. I don’t mean the junkies. They made a choice, live with it. I don’t wanna go off, so I leave it here.
That brings the point up about our current never-ending situation. It’s not easy to rise above the politics and medical stuff. We all go thru it but shooters, need to use the camera. Perhaps if the camera is a tool maybe it’s not a connector. But, you still deal with the energy issue. If the camera is a friend and partner in your creative endeavor, well then it’s more apt to be injured by the negative energy forced upon us. Time to step it up and find a way to keep clean energy and spirits.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
So all this chat is now at the point of clarity and direction. It’s very difficult to keep our creative energy alive and kicking in times as we live now. There must be some way out of here said the joker to the thief. My problem is that as much as I reject the bad energy and thoughts from entering my soul, the battle continues. There is no letup and it wears me out. I will never surrender to it all but that means the battle continues.
to be cont’d …..
Stay the course Shooter. The enemy is again upon us.
Joe, they never left and are always here. they just activated a Brigade of 87,000.
Got creative energy but what stops me to create more is, that I am tired of showing output, namely photos, out there to be seen or not (namely sharing sites). So I create, but jpgs stays on sd cards and don’t know why to create new jpegs for sd cards.
why do you store your photos on sd cards? The cards are for temp storage for the camera and then to transfer to a pc or hard drive. Tell me, Pavel, c’mon, tell me.
I wrote it not precisely. I don’t store them on SD. Once SD is full I archive all jpges to external HD. And than what. Too many jpgs in archives after those years. To many images on the internet – everywhere. Never ending stream of new photos.
On one side, I have urge to photograph every day, everywhere I look my eyes are framing scene and look at light.
But it makes me uneasy when I have those photos, I also want to show them, but when I do that, I am trapped in social media scroll-liking-dopamine addiction machine.
I am not a heavy shooter. I may go out for 3-4 hours and shoot maybe 20-30 frames. half jpegs, half raw. Then most jpegs are deleted. The raw I select one or 2 that I like. If I get one I like on a shoot, it’s a good day. The files are put in hard drives that are backed up. I format the sd card every time it goes in the camera. Every photo is named chronologically since my early film daze.
Storage space is not very expensive so, that’s key to the digital issues. My filing system is as follows … 08-22-147 = August 2022, frame 147 If you set the sort to Capture Time. then my system allows you to find any photos in a short time.
I was speaking about motivation to shoot.
C’mon Pavel. It’s motivation to clean the house, or cook, or even go to work. For photography, it’s an inspiration.
Yes, this part is ok for me. Photography is fun. And than you end up with photos. Digital images. Photos needs other eyes to see them. Singers who dislikes singing for audiance. That tiredness to show show the photos. Than what they are for?
Pavel, it goes without saying but I’m saying it anyway. Inspired Eye magazine… get it. don
I feel like I have been MIA from your posts. i had to google and find them again. Just got over two weeks of COVID. Not a joy. Happy to be out and about. Enjoying my family and making photos once again. Glad to know you are well.
Hey Keith, this is my first time back in a while. I hope you’re doing well and that Covid will leave you alone. ZINC along with vitamins will ward off covid for a while.