Follow Your Own Path

Andrew over at Tao of Photography left me this nice response to my post ( Thanks Andrew ! ) about the Whys of the View Camera:

The web and blogging at its best! A wonderful, thoughtful essay on the artistic path of a great artist, for all to enjoy. Just a superb piece. I can well resonate with your view that "camera helps me to slow down". Though I never used a view camera (indeed, a photographer friend of mine who *does* is likely to talk me into doing precisely that), I often lament the "old" days (even with my film 35 mm), when everything was "slower". I would not go so far as to say that something deep has been lost in the modern world of instant digital review (though something clearly has), but speaking as a devout practitioner of (and convert to) the "digital" version of photography, I find I must discipline myself to always "slow down" when behind the camera. I never had to do that with film.

Thanks again for that lovely post. It is a pleasure reading about other artist's life's trajectories, and what their own trajectories have taught them.

Your words made me think how we should follow our own paths what ever that may be, we can take a little something from here or there and apply it to our own situation, it then gives us a different perspective on the world around us, and transforms how we see our own world through our camera lens ( since this is a photography blog ) or for that matter with a paint brush, pencil, chisel if you are a sculptor or what ever. I think if one's main camera is a digital camera many of the though processes that are inherent with the view camera can by translated to the digital or any other type of camera. I think one of the things about the recent whirl wind advances in photographic technology is that there has been not much time to take a breather and reflect on how this technology has changed the way we interpret the world, I do think it's good to slow down, every once and a while, not that you will miss pictures possibilities ! but to just take the time and ask is this the very best I can do ?

The picture posted was taken with my 4 x 5 view camera and a 120mm lens while visiting Saturna Island in October of 2005.