UKC

To you, does your photography take on a greater personal significance than the physical act of recording the subject before you?

In reply to The Lemming:

yes.

In reply to Tall Clare:

and no.

That's not very helpful of me, is it?

In reply to The Lemming:

how does it work for you? is it a journey of self-discovery for you?

In reply to The Lemming:

To paraphrase Clare, er yes (more often) and no (increasingly less often - I'm in danger of taking it all a bit seriously at the moment!)

Certainly I view it as one of the few areas of my life where I can actually be (or at least feel as though I'm being) creative.

I'm not taking much in the way of climbing shots at the mo (though that may have something to do with the weather...) though I have some very definate plans to rectify this (not that I'm not enjoying the other photography I'm engaged in).

PP.

In reply to The Lemming:

Photography is about more than the image in the same way that climbing is about more than getting to the top of some rock. Whether that's important or not is another matter.

In reply to Tall Clare:

Not yet.

When I was an art student there were times when I got 'moments' of being in the present when creating something. However after spending most of my youth with a pencil or paint brush in my hand I sort of got fed up with the whole process when I left Art College and I haven't picked up a pencil, pen or brush in the last 20 years to do anything remotely as creative as a Still Life or Live Model sketch or drawing.

However times change and with the immediacy of digital photography and my DSLR my creativity may move into a new direction. At college I never took to photography as I got bored spending so much time in the dark-room taking test shots and bracketing. But that has all changed with advances in digital photography and some spare disposable income to allow me to buy the basic kit needed to allow me to have a virtual dark-room where I can see my images in glorious colour on a computer monitor.

As like many people on this site I am inspired by well composed images of mountain landscapes with interesting subject matter or atmospheric lighting in them. Sadly the chances of me capturing such images on the spur of the moment won't produce as good results as planning a project well in advance at home, going onto the hills and quietly waiting for an opportune moment.

I haven't done any of this yet but the plan is to put some quality time aside, go into the hills at a suitable location and just let my mind/consciousness just go with the flow and soak up the energy of the land before taking an image or two.

Who knows where this sort of approach to photography will take me?
Never done this sort of thing before and don't know what to expect but I'm guessing that it could be quite a solitary and meditative approach that may work for me.

In reply to The Lemming:

Don't forget, however you approach it (big high quality large format camera, or very small digital camera allowing extreme flexibility), the essence of it is all in the moment, the instant you take the picture. Timing is almost everything. Composition? Well, frankly, that should come to you very naturally if you have been taking photographs for any time at all. One reason why digital photography is so good: see how fast you can take a well composed picture. It's mostly about balance combined with imagination.

In reply to The Lemming:

Fwiw, I'm not sure what 'voyage of self discovery' means, but if I was I don't think I would look to a camera to take me on one.

In 30 years there can only have been a bare handful of times when I've gone out on a hill trip with a specific shot in mind - midwinter sunset down Loch Shiel from Beinn an Tuim (semi-successful), summer sunset from Rois-bheinn (produced one of my favourites), are all I can think of. Anything else has been pure opportunism, though I sometimes try to stack the odds in favour of something interesting happening.

I could never have hacked it as a pro, and those who can and do have my respect, though not my envy.

In reply to The Lemming:

Sometimes there is a mental message from you in your picture that you think someone else can read. Doesn't matter if they can as you can still read it and it will have some resonance for you.

In reply to The Lemming:

What macro would you recommend for navel fluff?

In reply to streapadair:

To me a voyage of self discovery is searching for enlightenment or contentment with myself. I'm just thinking that the act of going off to a place of natural beauty with the conscious intention of being there to experience the moment is the journey. The photography bit is just the iceing on the cake, so to speak. That, and having an image to help spark the emotions and events weeks or years down the road helps.

But 'voyage of discovery' could mean something completely different to every single one of us here.

In reply to The Lemming:

Yes. Most of my photography is of people, and the most important element of the picture is signifying what that person means **to me**, and how I relate to them.

I think that's why I always have such problems being happy with pictures of the Lady Blue - there's so many ways I relate to her that I can never record them all in one picture. Still trying though..

(to which she would say "yes you are dear").

**grins**

In reply to The Lemming: No, I just like taking pictures of interesting stuff. Getting up at 6 30 in the morning and running up a hill before the light goes is not what I'd call a voyage of self discovery, but it has its curious attraction too. The immediacy of photography is what I like about it. The musing and pontificating comes before and after, but the actual moment of photographing, everything switches off in a blur of activity.

Perhaps because I am consistently late everywhere I rarely have time for thinking, I am always fighting the clock!

In reply to The Lemming:

Has done for over 50 years.

In reply to The Lemming:

If your photography allows you to visit places and issues you otherwise wouldn't then I'd suggest it is part of, and allows you to set sail on, a voyage of discovery.

It maybe depends if you use photography as a medium of record or as a vehicle for self expression.

In reply to The Lemming:

Voyage?

More like an amble

or blind shuffle

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Not in the days of photoshop!

In reply to The Lemming: Yes, it pays the bills

In reply to The Lemming:

Yes. Expression. One of the most joyful realisations, particularly to share.

Your image is indelible in a sense (bear with me here). People sum you up on meeting you, make a call about you, very quickly, and this sticks. They then have a mental image of you, and whatever you say/ do is always framed by this original image. Expression, and the discovery of this expression by others somehow transcends this frame and creates, if not a new, but a wider image of your self to others. Sharing the intention of this expression through an unrelated subject by realisation from one you respect is a true joy.