“Nothing happens when you sit at home” - Elliot Erwitt

Dave Wilkinson said:
I have photographed my home town 'to death' over the last fifty or so years, but still enjoy the walks I've been doing since boyhood. Always there's a camera, although it often does not get used, these days I tend to look for detail, and expand on certain things in different light, and seasons. Some folks say -"why on earth did you take a picture of that?" when they see one like today's example ( below ).......I don't really know! - but the process makes me happy! 🙂
Dave
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Nice shot, Dave. Wait until you see Arles, though!

Tashi delek,

R.
 
It's important to be inspired, and a change of scenery is often the best fix. I have been wanting to do some landscapes, and here in Ls Cruces, New Mexico that means getting to the base of the Organ Mountains. Period. This is desert country, so there's no babbling brooks or anything, and I don't drive, so I finally bought a little gas engine for my bike to get me upgrade where the shots are. It should be here soon, and after a trial run or two I/m packing up the Leica R and the Graphic View II and see what I can do.

Seeing a good exhibit can get the creative juices going too. We're lucky here because even though this is a small agricultural town there's been some very good art/photo exhibits now and then. If your town isn't getting you juiced, try some macro photography, switch formats, travel a bit, do portraits, switch films, still lifes, etc. Anything to get a change in perspective.

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Steve M. said:
It's important to be inspired, and a change of scenery is often the best fix.
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You think that. I think that. Quite a lot of people think that.

But there is another contingent that is akin to the 'holier than thou' thread I started a few days ago. Instead of believing that one camera and one lens is the key to purity of vision, they believe that the One True Path is never going beyond the smell of your own privy. They're REALLY holy: just ask them.

(Note: this is NOT aimed specifically at any other respondents to this thread. It is merely an illustration of how different people can approach things in different ways. Also, some have very large privies, though in all fairness, I quite like New York.)

Cheers,

R.
 
Ronald, that´s quite an interesting thread you started! Makes me think about making a trip to NL. BTW, very good portrait you posted!
 
While there's not much around when, as Roger stated before, you seem to know the place all over, there are stories everywhere.

And I'm looking around for them.
It's also interesting to just use a different way to work or so, just leaving the usual paths.
 
I think saying that nothing happens in your town is probably erroneous.

everything happens everywhere. you just have to look for it, talk to it, and figure it out.


things happen everywhere. tragedy, hapiness, quirkyness, everything.

look for it and you'll find it.
 
Five years ago my wife Sue and I decided to devote a year to producing a photographic book of the area we'd been living for 20 (Sue) to 40 (me) years, the Mornington Peninsula, near Melbourne, Australia. When it came down to really thinking about that familiar area, and giving ourselves the impetus to go out each day to take photographs that would look good in a quite expensive ($70) "coffee table" book, our feelings and vision of our area really coalesced.

Long story short, it was a fantastic year, we sold out the book after investing much of our own money and a year of our lives and ended up making a little money on top of expenses, we learned a lot about self-publishing, printing, pre-press, distribution and all those sorts of things and also learned much about ourselves.

So, setting yourself a project about your "neck of the woods" is a good way to see it in a different light. Even better, put yourself under some pressure - commit to staging an exhibition of the work, even before you begin, at the local library or somewhere.

Cheers, Phil
 
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