journal

Photography without a plan -- in Amish country

in

Sometimes the hardest part of photography is simply going out the door. Driving somewhere always feels like an investment of time and money, and that pressure can make us overthink everything. On this day, I had no plan, no destination, and no idea what I was going to photograph. But this is what photography is about, embracing uncertainty, following the process, and giving chance a chance. From Dollar General parking lots to the farms and fields of northern Indiana, the day became less about outcomes and more about seeing what happens.

Don't quit

in

Talent is great, a good camera helps a lot, and having the resources to travel is amazing. But no matter where we start, the gear, or the locations we have access to, the biggest factor for our work is time. There’s no shortcut, no substitute for showing up, over and over, year after year, decade after decade. And doing it in a sustainable way.

Mastery through consistency

in

“The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don't know what to do with it” — Edward Weston

I’ve talked about consistency many times on this blog.

We need to give our tools and style some time to mature, we need to give ourselves enough room to grow with our current tools. Don’t try to photograph everything, focus on a few things.

A unique lens for unique images

in

I got to try something different, a reflex lens. This Kase 200mm f/5.6 is a prime, fixed aperture reflex lens, and it's able to do some crazy stuff. The bokeh it creates can lead to very interesting photographs, and it opens a new whole new world of creative possibilities.

These are some of the images I've made with this lens.

The first days are the hardest

in

A photography road trip is a big change from our everyday life. New routines (or the lack of one), habits, motions, and mindset. It takes a while getting used to it, and that's why the first days are the hardest. As I hit the road again, I try to make it easy on myself by visiting a location I'm familiar with, in Northern Michigan.