the heart of the continent: January 2010

I've been thinking a bit about the picture-taking process lately. This guy has some good things to say about it (as well as very good reviews on cameras and equipment—don't be fooled by the cheesy look of the site). There will be some out there who will dispute this, but what I've come to learn in the past couple years since I really got into photography again is that good pictures come primarily from patience and luck. I see people who snap snap snap like crazy and that's all fine and good, but in the case of crazy snappers a good picture will emerge more out of probability than skill (and sometimes never at all). While a good picture is a good picture, my gut says that I'd rather take one or two good pictures than take a thousand in the hope that some good ones will rise to the top. That's where the patience comes in. Anyone can shove a camera in a kid's face and snap 50 frames a minute—but it takes patience (and a zoom lens) to wait and try to go unnoticed.

Then there's luck.

Now with some patience you can make your own luck, but sometimes the moment appears serendipitously and you've just got to take it. Some of the better landscapes/cityscapes I've taken in the last year or so have benefitted greatly from luck/providence. Sometimes all the elements will come together perfectly the first time, and in those moments I think you just thank the Lord and set up your shot.

Providential intervention notwithstanding, it is always good to be refining one's process. A digital camera can make shot discipline a little bit more difficult to maintain, but a shot is so much more rewarding when it done right on the first try and done once. Ken Rockwell (the link above) has a piece on his blog dealing with shot discipline in choosing a subject which is worth a read. In the digital age especially it's easy to just quickly snap whatever catches your eye without asking why it catches your eye and then taking a picture based on that. It's something that I'm trying to learn.

That being said, there are some shots of pure avuncular self-indulgence here, but I think they're still at least technically good pictures. Most of the winter shots are more informational than "artistic," but I hope you enjoy looking at all of them anyhow . . .