6 replies to this topic

[OTRTexan]

When's the last time, you sat and enjoyed a sunrise or sunset, without trying to figure out the best angle, or composition to frame it? Watched the moon slipping through the clouds without scrambling to get your camera for the shot. When was the last walk you took through any beautiful place, that you didn't bring your camera?

As photographers, we train ourselves to see things differently. We have learned to recognize when great conditions exist that make an awesome image possible. The world no longer revolves around what we see, but the light that we see it in.

Yesterday, I was leaving Omaha, Nebraska just before sunrise. The clouds were shaping up for what would be a beautiful sunrise. I knew it was coming without a doubt. I also knew that I was not going to be able to photograph it. Furthermore, I was headed west, so couldn't even watch it like I'd want to. But with the use of electric mirrors, I was able to catch parts of it. I couldn't however turn my camera brain off. I kept seeing places with image possibilities. Silhouetted skylines and trees, reflective buildings, etc.

Do you think you can sit and watch something awesome without thinking about reaching for a camera? Me? I think I'm doomed lol.

[Merco_61]

It took some discipline, but I think I can admire mother nature's beauty without engaging the "photographer's eye" these days. It requires a zen-like state of mind to concentrate on the experience rather than the possible picture, but it can be done. Like all kinds of meditation, it gets easier as you do it but it is strange how easy it is to lose that mental focus and start seeing photographic angles and lighting instead.

[dcbear78]

I'm hearing you... On top of that I think I have got my 8yo daughter trained to see things the same way too. Often she will come racing to get my attention when she sees an amazing sunset or other photo opportunity.

[RossCumming]

Great post and one that hits home.

 

My partner and I often go out for a walk from the house (we are lucky that we live next to woodland/marshland/wetland area so walking from the house is easy) and I so very often reach for the camera bag only to be shot down and told that I am not taking it (even though my partner is also a shooter, the Canon user in our relationship!), that we are going out for a walk to enjoy the surroundings and simply be out. But still we both find ourselves looking, like last night, at the sunset as we were walking thtough the marshland area discussing how beautiful the light was last night and possible compositions etc. At which point, having earlier been told I was not to take the camera, I restrained myself from popping the iPhone out of my pocket and snapping that sunset.......

 

But you are right; once you get into something like photography, it is hard not to always be considering it when you are out. As an ex competitive slalom canoeist and white-water runner, I still look at rivers from a kayaking perspective, looking for lines, anticipating what the river hydraulics are doing, whats causing them etc. Also as someone who played bass guitar in my youth, I still pick out the bass lines in music ahead of any other instrument. These are things that I am conditioned to and will always find difficult to compartmentalise myself from so that I can just simply enjoy them for that they are without over-complicating or over-analysing it all.........

[Ron]

Here in south Florida we see gorgeous sunsets (and sunrises) all the time. And, I always have my camera brain turned on when I see them. I can't help it. I've been doing this for decades. The really unfortunate thing is that one, I usually don't have anything even resembling a camera when the best ones pop up and two, sunsets/sunrises are so short here that, unless you've got your gear ready when they begin, there's no way you can get set up in time. So, you may as well lie back and enjoy the show.

 

--Ron

[TBonz]

When I'm shooting a game or whatever, I almost always have conversations with the folks around me, but that is almost always "between shots" like between plays in football or between innings in baseball...and even those times I keep my eyes open for other shots and stop mid-sentence if I see something I need to shoot quickly...I think it is the same way in reverse where I can get focused on some other activity and never even think about the camera...but, usually I am seeing pretty much everything through a mental viewfinder with a VERY wide zoom range.  Many times I don't bother to grab the camera to capture what I see...It is more along the lines of figuring out how I would shoot something if I needed to capture it, but I'm always seeing possible photos.

[etphoto]

I am the opposite, I see something, admire it, move on and then after say, "crap, should have photographed that." Lol