At the end of 2009, I’ve shot over 90 000 pictures. After shooting this much, I believe I’ve proven myself enough to be a good photographer when the moment or subject presents itself to me.
Taking a lot of shots required me to stop moving while shooting and to sit my ass down to process on my computer. Posting pictures online drew comments in that I respond to. The community involvement quickly became a necessity. This caused a lot of inactivity in my life.
For sure, carrying medium to heavy gear (lenses + camera + tripod) might be highly physical, but it also made me a lot less mobile. Near the end of 2009, I tried to lighten my load by getting a smaller bag and shooting more with fast zoom and prime lenses, but it still made me stop to take a shot. Walking/Hiking with a camera in hand doesn’t build enough momentum to become a cardio activity. With studies and all forcing my ass down in front of a desk with notes, homework and computer, I don’t think photography is a great idea to stall my physical activity.
Being easily tired in the first weeks of 2010, I made the decision to put more physical activity in my life. Thus, I started looking for opportunities to skate and do downhill skiing. While I was practicing those sports, my body didn’t seem to respond as well as some years before and I’ve quickly run out of steam. To think, I used to be a very active person, boy was I ashamed of myself to not be able to get to a level I once was.
So far, I’ve done a lot of outdoor activities with friends and family and been doing some televised aerobics. Yes, televised aerobics might sound cheesy to some but hey it’s really giving me a workout!
It has been days since I seriously shot with my Nikon D90. Ever since the beginning of the year, I didn’t have time to think about my next portraits or concepts because I’ve been thrown into a wheel of endless personal homework and outdoor activities.
The Fujifilm F70EXR has been accomplishing his duties very well as a pocket camera by offering me an ISO range of 100-800 combined with a stabilized 10x zoom and decent dynamic range. For sure the shots look a lot less good than the Nikon but at least I don’t have to carry that bulk everywhere I go. Yes I feel that the only way for me to keep photography in my life was to take pictures of the things I find cool in some interesting enough angle and nothing else.
Photography has taken a more documental phase rather than a passionate hobby of mine. It’s a choice that I took to save my life from the amazing chaos that was 2009.
Doing so did raise some eyebrows in the community I used to hang out with. Some understood while others felt sad of my lost of passion and rebelled against my decision to stop. I’m sorry to disappoint but photography has done more bad things to my life behind the scene than good. It’s weird for me to say this because I’ve lived through many memorable moments during this photographic life too and don’t want to sound too dramatic about those statements. I’ve also tried to live by that statement last year and failed to do so. But I think I’m doing well so far this year and intend to keep it that way.
Thus I’ll shoot to document my life rather than impress. There are better things in life than this.
Photography in 2010: to document rather than to impress :: PYKtures Stories
1 comments:
I think you came to roughly the same conclusion I had circa 2007-2008, after the initial trigger-happy phase of 2006.
Photography. It's just a hobby. It's secondary. There is more to life than that, and photography will always be available to me, in the corner, waiting.
Post a Comment