Has anyone else experienced this in the course of a lifetime's photographing nature? And if so, what did you do about it?
I started out photographing everything that caught my interest, and deliberately traveled to sites (mountains, lakes, woods, etc.) that I considered likely give me pretty pictures. I had read books on photography, studied magazines, and worked hard on composition, exposure, etc., experimenting all the time (including with odd films, like false-color infrared...somewhere I have a bunch of slides of autumn foliage done that way, which was a lot of fun.) When flush with film (the cost of film & developing in the PX being lower than on the regular market) I also shot in the city some, mostly "funny" things like odd car grills or window shapes, but for the most part spent every moment I could in natural surroundings. Except for a few shots for family back home, I don't remember taking many pictures of the places I lived or their yards (if any.) For a couple of years, I took horse show pictures at small shows and sold them (and discovered how finicky riders are: they blame the photographer if their foot or their hands are out of position over a jump, or the horse doesn't have its ears pricked...<G>)but used that income to buy more film for shooting natural subjects.
Economic circumstances (OK, being broke) stopped my photography in its tracks for some years, and homeschooling our autistic son ate up all my daylight time even when the economics improved a little...until recently. In 2001, we bought about 80 acres that we're restoring from overgrazed and eroded pasture to native plants (including ~ fifty acres as a prairie restoration project.) We started off using "throwaway" cameras, and then inexpensive point-and-shoot digital to document what we were doing (as required by the county for a wildlife management exemption)...and for the first time I was exploring a particular piece of land in detail, photographing from certain reference points at different seasons, doing plant and critter ID shots, etc. Last year, I moved up to a digital SLR (in large part because the point-and-shoots were driving me nuts with their limitations)which gave me back the kind of control and flexibility I used to have with my film SLRs.
But my priorities in photography have changed a lot--and I didn't realize it until reading the comments on images shown here. For instance, I used to spend a lot of time on composition--I shot mostly landscapes and plant closeups and some macro critters, things that would hold still long enough to plan a shot carefully. And I cared about the whole-frame composition, since I was using slide film and having custom prints done was beyond my means. (And I was young and agile and able to shinny up trees and clamber down steep slopes with a lot less risk of breaking me or my equipment. One of my mischievous friends has a picture of my legs and backside as I was hanging over the edge of a cliff to shoot a fern down below...)
Now my pictures are taken to illustrate particular interventions (such as a new check dam or wildlife guzzler), to prove the existence of a particular species on the place (for instance, a series of a killdeer, its nest and eggs, and the hatchlings), or to use for species identification (for instance, a very tall prairie plant which reappeared last year on our place: I took a series of shots of stem, individual leaves, leaf arrangement, flower cluster, individual flowers, etc., to send to a botanist for help with ID, and I send dragonfly/damselfly pictures to an Odonate specialist if I need help there.) I'm building an image database of what's here--plants and animals both--and at present am most concerned with getting sharp, clear, reasonably large images. Composition is down the list of priorities, unless it enhances one of these other goals...particularly for the species ID shots, I will crop to make the critter image as large as possible..the "field guide" sort of image.
This is not, of course, all to the good, and I'm not bragging about it, or arguing that my priorities are right for anyone else. It's just that they've changed, and changed almost without my noticing, when I chose to confine almost all my photography to this one site, and work intensively here, with goals other than making pretty pictures (and there's nothing at all wrong with pretty pictures. I *like* pretty pictures.) It was a contraction, of sorts--I don't go traveling to look for good picture possibilities anymore, and my focus--for both photography and conservation/land use activity--is pretty much here on this piece of land where I can actually make a difference. I can't stop the rampant (and rabid) development in this county which is destroying so much of the natural landscape--I argued and wrote letters and so on for years without making a dent in the pace of it--but I can go out and help this patch heal.
I was wondering if anyone else had experienced a change of priorities (not the same ones, necessarily, just any other change) in the course of decades of photographing nature. I noticed that Guy Tal had commented that he feels just photographing pristine sites isn't enough, or isn't the right emphasis now, when they're disappearing at the current rate. One of the things which bothers me a little is that I may not be doing it "right"...either in terms of documenting this piece of ground, or in terms of doing whatever it is a part-time nature photographer can do to change public policy. I would welcome comments and discussion of these issues.
(And meanwhile, it's another nice day and I'm going out to see if I can get that Common Baskettail to *slow down* enough to get a better shot of it...and the thistle-seed sock is covered with finches...and the tiny little butterflies are all over the Drummond wild onion flowers...and the horse-crippler and nipple-cactus are blooming.)
I can certainly relate to what you are saying. We make images for different reasons and for different purposes. I certainly don't shy away from the occasional "made to sell" image and I enjoy beauty as much as anyone, regardless of how common or popular a given subject might be.
Then there are those images that touch me in a very personal way - to me they are the reason for owning a camera and using it in the field in the first place - I care about these things, I want to keep a record of them, I want to share them with others. In this context it doesn't even matter what those things are to me - I'm sure you and anyone else who has ever taken on a creative endeavor can think of any number of "things" that drive and inspire and motivate you, regardless of what they may or may not mean to others.
Your first priority is to create something that satisfies *you*. We are complex beings and our tastes, priorities, and motivations change, mature, and evolve over time. It is only natural that the ways we express ourselves creatively evolve right along with them.
Guy
Posted by Jim Erhardt on April 11, 2006 at 6:41 AM
Life's encounters force changes in our priorities, photographic or otherwise. I know for certain that has been the case for me, as it sounds like it has been for you as well.
Perhaps it's all part of a "photographic maturation" process we go through - we start small, graduate to "bigger and better" in both gear and the subjects we photograph, and eventually come full circle back to the "small" by discovering that the place we live is as important to us as any other. In your case Elizabeth, it seems you have truly invested yourself in the cause and have found a way to make a difference.
If everyone did as you do, our world would be a better place.
Posted by Mary Dennis on April 26, 2006 at 9:45 AM
Hi Elizabeth,
I'm coming to this post a bit late but I am intrigued by what you have written. I think that getting to intimately know and document your personal 80 acres in the world is an absolutley positive and fruitful thing to be doing. Not to mention your attempt to bring it back and heal it to what it once was and naturally wants to be. Creating a record of this process will not only be a legacy to you and your family but also provide information for a greater good in my opinion. How wonderful that you have a tool (your camera) that allows you to do this in an effective way and I think you should use it to it's full potential. If that means not worrying so much about "prettiness" and compositional rules then so be it I say. You sound like a person who cares passionately for this planet we live on and I'm glad one small parcel of it is in your hands. I say document, document, document and get to know that parcel inside and out and you will ultimately grow leaps and bounds as a human being. It's my dream to have a chunk of land that big to roam...I don't think I would ever leave it unless I had to. I might even be tempted to become a hermit because what I need most in the world is always found in the dirt and sky.
I hope you keep us posted here at NPN about the things you find on and learn about your 80 acres. I think your priorities are right on and have potential to make a real difference. Thanks for posting your thoughts, I found them very interesting.
Added: I almost always take my camera (point and shoot) along with me on walks, wherever they might be. You never know when you will see some flower, plant..whatever...that you haven't seen before. I snap a very documentary type shot, bring it up on the computer when I get home, get out the field guides and figure it out. Just yesterday I saw a flower along an old railroad bed that I couldn't recall ever having seen before. Turned out it was a beautiful purple spiderwort. I can't stand NOT KNOWING!! My camera's memory is so much better than mine these days!
Discussion
3 repliesI started out photographing everything that caught my interest, and deliberately traveled to sites (mountains, lakes, woods, etc.) that I considered likely give me pretty pictures. I had read books on photography, studied magazines, and worked hard on composition, exposure, etc., experimenting all the time (including with odd films, like false-color infrared...somewhere I have a bunch of slides of autumn foliage done that way, which was a lot of fun.) When flush with film (the cost of film & developing in the PX being lower than on the regular market) I also shot in the city some, mostly "funny" things like odd car grills or window shapes, but for the most part spent every moment I could in natural surroundings. Except for a few shots for family back home, I don't remember taking many pictures of the places I lived or their yards (if any.) For a couple of years, I took horse show pictures at small shows and sold them (and discovered how finicky riders are: they blame the photographer if their foot or their hands are out of position over a jump, or the horse doesn't have its ears pricked...<G>)but used that income to buy more film for shooting natural subjects.
Economic circumstances (OK, being broke) stopped my photography in its tracks for some years, and homeschooling our autistic son ate up all my daylight time even when the economics improved a little...until recently. In 2001, we bought about 80 acres that we're restoring from overgrazed and eroded pasture to native plants (including ~ fifty acres as a prairie restoration project.) We started off using "throwaway" cameras, and then inexpensive point-and-shoot digital to document what we were doing (as required by the county for a wildlife management exemption)...and for the first time I was exploring a particular piece of land in detail, photographing from certain reference points at different seasons, doing plant and critter ID shots, etc. Last year, I moved up to a digital SLR (in large part because the point-and-shoots were driving me nuts with their limitations)which gave me back the kind of control and flexibility I used to have with my film SLRs.
But my priorities in photography have changed a lot--and I didn't realize it until reading the comments on images shown here. For instance, I used to spend a lot of time on composition--I shot mostly landscapes and plant closeups and some macro critters, things that would hold still long enough to plan a shot carefully. And I cared about the whole-frame composition, since I was using slide film and having custom prints done was beyond my means. (And I was young and agile and able to shinny up trees and clamber down steep slopes with a lot less risk of breaking me or my equipment. One of my mischievous friends has a picture of my legs and backside as I was hanging over the edge of a cliff to shoot a fern down below...)
Now my pictures are taken to illustrate particular interventions (such as a new check dam or wildlife guzzler), to prove the existence of a particular species on the place (for instance, a series of a killdeer, its nest and eggs, and the hatchlings), or to use for species identification (for instance, a very tall prairie plant which reappeared last year on our place: I took a series of shots of stem, individual leaves, leaf arrangement, flower cluster, individual flowers, etc., to send to a botanist for help with ID, and I send dragonfly/damselfly pictures to an Odonate specialist if I need help there.) I'm building an image database of what's here--plants and animals both--and at present am most concerned with getting sharp, clear, reasonably large images. Composition is down the list of priorities, unless it enhances one of these other goals...particularly for the species ID shots, I will crop to make the critter image as large as possible..the "field guide" sort of image.
This is not, of course, all to the good, and I'm not bragging about it, or arguing that my priorities are right for anyone else. It's just that they've changed, and changed almost without my noticing, when I chose to confine almost all my photography to this one site, and work intensively here, with goals other than making pretty pictures (and there's nothing at all wrong with pretty pictures. I *like* pretty pictures.) It was a contraction, of sorts--I don't go traveling to look for good picture possibilities anymore, and my focus--for both photography and conservation/land use activity--is pretty much here on this piece of land where I can actually make a difference. I can't stop the rampant (and rabid) development in this county which is destroying so much of the natural landscape--I argued and wrote letters and so on for years without making a dent in the pace of it--but I can go out and help this patch heal.
I was wondering if anyone else had experienced a change of priorities (not the same ones, necessarily, just any other change) in the course of decades of photographing nature. I noticed that Guy Tal had commented that he feels just photographing pristine sites isn't enough, or isn't the right emphasis now, when they're disappearing at the current rate. One of the things which bothers me a little is that I may not be doing it "right"...either in terms of documenting this piece of ground, or in terms of doing whatever it is a part-time nature photographer can do to change public policy. I would welcome comments and discussion of these issues.
(And meanwhile, it's another nice day and I'm going out to see if I can get that Common Baskettail to *slow down* enough to get a better shot of it...and the thistle-seed sock is covered with finches...and the tiny little butterflies are all over the Drummond wild onion flowers...and the horse-crippler and nipple-cactus are blooming.)
Elizabeth Moon
Texas
I can certainly relate to what you are saying. We make images for different reasons and for different purposes. I certainly don't shy away from the occasional "made to sell" image and I enjoy beauty as much as anyone, regardless of how common or popular a given subject might be.
Then there are those images that touch me in a very personal way - to me they are the reason for owning a camera and using it in the field in the first place - I care about these things, I want to keep a record of them, I want to share them with others. In this context it doesn't even matter what those things are to me - I'm sure you and anyone else who has ever taken on a creative endeavor can think of any number of "things" that drive and inspire and motivate you, regardless of what they may or may not mean to others.
Your first priority is to create something that satisfies *you*. We are complex beings and our tastes, priorities, and motivations change, mature, and evolve over time. It is only natural that the ways we express ourselves creatively evolve right along with them.
Guy
Perhaps it's all part of a "photographic maturation" process we go through - we start small, graduate to "bigger and better" in both gear and the subjects we photograph, and eventually come full circle back to the "small" by discovering that the place we live is as important to us as any other. In your case Elizabeth, it seems you have truly invested yourself in the cause and have found a way to make a difference.
If everyone did as you do, our world would be a better place.
I'm coming to this post a bit late but I am intrigued by what you have written. I think that getting to intimately know and document your personal 80 acres in the world is an absolutley positive and fruitful thing to be doing. Not to mention your attempt to bring it back and heal it to what it once was and naturally wants to be. Creating a record of this process will not only be a legacy to you and your family but also provide information for a greater good in my opinion. How wonderful that you have a tool (your camera) that allows you to do this in an effective way and I think you should use it to it's full potential. If that means not worrying so much about "prettiness" and compositional rules then so be it I say. You sound like a person who cares passionately for this planet we live on and I'm glad one small parcel of it is in your hands. I say document, document, document and get to know that parcel inside and out and you will ultimately grow leaps and bounds as a human being. It's my dream to have a chunk of land that big to roam...I don't think I would ever leave it unless I had to. I might even be tempted to become a hermit because what I need most in the world is always found in the dirt and sky.
I hope you keep us posted here at NPN about the things you find on and learn about your 80 acres. I think your priorities are right on and have potential to make a real difference. Thanks for posting your thoughts, I found them very interesting.
Added: I almost always take my camera (point and shoot) along with me on walks, wherever they might be. You never know when you will see some flower, plant..whatever...that you haven't seen before. I snap a very documentary type shot, bring it up on the computer when I get home, get out the field guides and figure it out. Just yesterday I saw a flower along an old railroad bed that I couldn't recall ever having seen before. Turned out it was a beautiful purple spiderwort. I can't stand NOT KNOWING!!
In case you're interested: spiderwort