One of the things I teach at my workshops is: recognizing your images before and after exposure. I talked about this in Parts 1 & 2 but it’s something that must be embedded in the mind so that the eye & heart can work together to find the images. Sometimes ideas seem strange and we don’t embrace them freely. We hesitate because the idea doesn’t fit the preconceptions implanted in out mind by outside sources and worse….by our own doing. This is a challenge that if accepted, may lead to a new understanding of what our photos look like. It could add to the very definition of what we are photographically.

This series of photos are made exactly for this reason and exercise. I guess it’s about finding a synergism between the eye, heart and mind. Lets think of the eye as Photography and the mind as the camera and the heart as the excitement of a new undiscovered image. So what happens is that if we are attentive to what we are doing and what’s doing us, we can grasp the moment and enjoy the stretch of the mind, outside the box.

Tanya doesn’t really get photography beyond family snaps. That’s cool and I torture her with my cameras and photos of her in all kinds of different situations. She always rejects the photos. So when I decided to move the camera around free space, she looked at it and told me I was crazy and I need to see my VA doctor right away. When we got home, I loaded the photos into LR5 and called her to look…….she loved these because they presented a new way to use a camera and make photos. She opened her mind to the possibilities.

Of course this in no way eans that permission is granted to make photos of her, it just means that she will look at the photos in a different way.

I use the Ricoh GRD4 when I start seeing the frame as a box. I know, I know….see it as a window. Of course I know that but everyone should learn to rethink their approach to photography and life for that matter.

The GRD4 allows me to break away from the routine I fall into sometimes. Of course any camera can make you rethink but I program my mind to use the GRD4 especially for that reason. When I pick it up, my mind says…”Uh oh…time to rethink the frame….again”. The camera becomes a backup safety net. It puts me into a state of mind that opens the boxes and lets me see them as windows.

I have a member of my workshop from around 4 years ago. He says that this procedure is just plain ridiculous. So a few times a year he calls me for advice about helping him get past something blocking his vision. We talk for 20 minutes and then I end the conversation my saying….”get a safety net camera”.  Eh….he won’t do it because it’s a ridiculous theory but he’ll cal me in 6-8 months.

There exist many photos out there waiting to be born. Within those photos lives many that are just beautiful images that are for you to add to the definition of your self. If you can’t find them it is your fault and not theirs. If you focus on your Eye, Heart and mind then out there are those photos waiting for you. If you don’t focus on your Eye, Heart and Mind, those images are still out there but you won’t find them because someone else will……

have a good weekend………