Or, Taking Time for Yourself and Your Photography

Many decades ago, I came up with a new verb phrase, “to go splat.” No, that does not mean to do a face plant into your dinner plate. For me, it is utterly relaxing. No work … at least for a bit. We all need time to recharge. There is a reason, my blogs have been infrequent this summer. Arnie and I are on the go all the time, and I don’t know about you, but I need to go splat once in a while.

Before I go on, the images in this blog are some of my all-time favorites, none of which was done in any of our workshops. They all came out of ideas I garnered while observing nature, leading trips in the wilderness, going to museums and looking at paintings, browsing through photography books, etc. that later translated into images. They have sold as fine-art prints, been exhibited in museums and exhibitions, and/or published in well-known publications.

With our house safely under the watch of our house-sitters, we take time in New Hampshire every year to go splat. We have an annual reunion each August of four childhood buddies and their “spice” (my plural for spouse). We enjoy the lake, one of the cleanest in the state, watch the loons, catch up, dine together each night, rotating among houses, play corn hole (a real game, please), charades, and often laugh ourselves silly until tears streak down our faces and our bellies hurt.

There is the old expression, “All work and no play makes John [we could each put our own names in here] a dull boy [girl/woman/man].

Sometimes in our workshops, Arnie will have our participants each find a spot they like and sit for 10-20 minutes, just observing what is around them without photographing.

Arnie and I have been doing this ourselves for the past couple of weeks or so. Observing weather, the patterns on the water when it is raining, the fish coming up to snatch a bug on the surface, the wind in the trees, the deer who come up into the field, hearing the coyotes yipping at night close to the house, walking in the woods along trails made by the resident bears, coyotes, deer, and who knows what else.

Photography is not only about the relationship between you and your subject, but how you feel about your subject. If you don’t take time to feel and observe, how are you going to make a photograph that speaks to others? How are you going to get ideas for the future?

When I go splat, I am always watching, observing, and putting ideas into my memory pixels of things I may want to photograph later. Meanwhile, I am giving my body a much-needed and hopefully well-deserved rest.

So, take time for yourself, take a look at what is around you (your spouse or mate will appreciate actually seeing your face without some black contraption in front of it), and take it all in.

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