To the Right of my Left Brain: Journey of Recognition

Recognizing Inspiration

As a board certified behavior analyst, today's photojournal prompt is particularly exciting. What Kat has presented us with is called a task analysis - a breakdown of a more complex skill, like tying shoes or.. making a photograph. It clicks with my brain's scientific way of thinking.
When I am at work or trying to figure out my next steps in life, small or big, I always come back to a concept I learned from a marcus buckingham podcast - strengths and weaknesses. He conceptualizes strengths as things you are good at, yes, but also - ready for it? - things that strengthen you. He says that things you are good at, but hate, are not actually strengths, but weaknesses. And worse, because you're good at them, people keep throwing them at you. I am an excellent interviewer but I hate it - but I get assigned most of the interviews, during which I am just dreaming about being somewhere else. I am also an excellent materials-maker, and while I am laminating, creating visual supports, etc, time just flies by. I'd do it even if I didn't get paid. It's a thrill.
That's what we're looking at here, as well - our strengths and weaknesses in the photographic process. (PS - something you suck at but love to do is neither a strength or weakness - it's a hobby, lol).

My strengths in the photographic process are: -seeing a subject - since I had my little epiphany, I can sharply identify what exactly it is I wanted to photograph, what about that subject, and am beginning to conceptualize how I want to present that to a viewer. -I love most of the exploration except when technicalities get in the way. -Review is a thrill, and less and less a surprise (as in, oh, I thought that would be great and it was awful kind of surprise). -I love sharing with others and receiving feedback.

My weaknesses are: -Editing is boring. I also don't have proper editing software, and further, my ultimate goal is for the photographs to require little editing to begin with. I'm not yet into the editing-as-creative-process part - probably because I haven't been exposed and I don't imagine I'll ever have time for it. -I never get an end result although putting photos up on the blog is often disappointing because out of their context in my photostream, they're often not as exciting as I thought. I also find the cropping or color or something about a printed product to be very disappointing when I get them back. I don't think printing processes have caught up with the digital aspect ratio or something.

One area of frustration I continue to come up against is lack of equipment to do what I want to do - e.g., my girlfriend would like me to take her new portraits in exchange for providing interior design for my cottage. I want to agree, but I don't have a good portrait lens, reflectors, or the skill to get good SOOTC shots, or any training regarding posing and making people look good - even though it's one of my motivations.

One area that I see I get jazzed up about over and over is exploring the subject - and letting it reval itself.

a. Intention to photograph b. Seeing a subject c. Exploring/studying a subject with your camera d. Review of your images e. Editing of your images f. Getting an end result – on the wall, on the web, etc. g. Understanding your images h. Sharing with others i. Receiving feedback

Unfamiliar Subject - Photojournal

When the last lesson from the 4-week Kat Eye: Journey of Recognition course arrived in my mailbox, I could hardly believe it. Life, the universe, and bad lighting seriously impaired my ability to keep up with this class, and I have been blessed with amazing "virtual" classmates that have formed a real, vibrant online community and classroom. I hope someday Kat will sponsor a retreat and we will all get away together with our cameras and our array of personalities. I also hope it will be in Oregon, because 1) I've always wanted to go there and 2) I think I want a tattoo from this place in Oregon that I can't remember the name of.

The silver lining is that we have another course coming up almost immediately, the Journey of Inspiration. So, I have hope.

However, I don't think it was ONLY my life that got in the way - it was my self too. I think I intimidated myself, set my expectations too high, had a few amazing breakthroughs and experiences in Starting the Journey, and got fearful and too expectant.

So today I kicked everyone out of the house, didn't bother about the fact that the lighting is subpar, and decided to tackle photographing an unfamiliar object, from a couple weeks back. I usually lean towards my daughter, or natural backgrounds like wood, and shooting outdoors, so I figured I would try some depression glass that I needed to photograph anyhoo.

During the exercise (photos are here), I started out frustrated because I just wanted to capture this little glass, and 1) the light bites, 2) I couldn't get an uncluttered background 3) my camera is notorious for a lot of noise at high ISOs, 4) my husband took my todder AND my tripod, argh. I wasn't interested in this, and then I put the little glass on the wooden bench and added some mirrors to try to capture more natural light. Still boring. I added a different piece (with branches, of course) and got more into it - there was some texture, and interest, and something in the glass jar spoke to me. Then I came around the corner, like Kat trained us to do, and there was the little jar, looking at itself. In that angle, time got lost, things came together, and the little vignette in the previous post was born.

Joke's on me: I ended up using the natural element as a backdrop, of course, and sticking with the wide aperture, of course.. but I tried, I opened up the creative gates again, and I'd still like to try sports or architecture, but once again, can't let perfect get in the way of good. I think that the challenges of light and glass, which fades into many backgrounds, made this a challenge for me. Regardless, I feel very emotional about the results. There was something very touching to me about objects examining themselves in the mirror, about the branches reaching out of the tiny jar, about the tiny old webs hanging off the branches, and finally, the brilliance and transcendence of the light on the glass and mirror. The whole process gave me some hope about our situation and my mental state right now.