Bruce Walker wrote on 1/2/19 3:42 PM:
On Wed, Jan 2, 2019 at 5:09 PM William Robb <[email protected]> wrote:
On Wed, Jan 2, 2019, 9:49 AM Bruce Walker <[email protected] wrote:
I think the secret to making sure it's a joy and not a duty is to
firmly resist the temptation to make photography a vocation.
Or make photographing naked women into a vocation.
I expect that even shooting naked ladies can become a chore if there's
commerce involved. Deadlines, securing models, post-processing,
location scouting, paperwork ... bleargh.
Shooting nude women just because you can is all joy.
Some years ago I was toying with the idea of going pro and was figuring
out what it would take to make a living at photography. I knew that I
wouldn't be able to go from zero to enough paid gigs to make a living in
any sort of reasonable time, but I was able to get enough free gigs to
simulate what it would be like to work as a photographer. It took about
two or three weeks of that to suck all of the fun out of my photography
and convince me that I didn't want photography to become my job, I
wanted to keep it as something that I did for fun. It is nice, however,
when occasionally the fun I get from photography includes cashing a check.
Now pardon me as I was philosophic, and perhaps a bit pedantic...
From my study of Aikido, I have realized that almost any activity can
become a "do", (pronounced doe) aka dao, tao, or translated "way" or
path". For me to treat something as a do, is to work on improving my
skill at it for the meditative benefits of working to improve your
skills at that activity. For me, photography can very much fall into
that category because there are so many areas to improve one's
(especially my) skill and understanding. For me, simply working on
holding the camera still while taking photos can be a skill that can
never be perfected, only improved. Composition, lighting, and even
putting a model at ease are just a few more of those skills.
So, to me, walking around with my camera looking for photos, even when I
don't have my muse, isn't necessarily a onerous chore, but an
opportunity for a few minutes of meditation. At least that's the theory.
--
Larry Colen [email protected] http://red4est.com/lrc
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/collections/72157612824732477/
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