Dec 1, 2011

Beds

I got a lot of, “you’re a smart guy, YOU COULD DO THAT!!”, while I was visiting family for the November holiday. Don’t get me wrong, loud encouragement is definitely something I encourage. One of them was regarding a book of photography; of new england churches. I thought to myself, “I do have a lot of photos of beds for some reason, but enough to publish a book!?…”

I knew I had taken quite a few throughout my career as a digital-camera-owner. And I knew I had them on file somewhere, but my lack of OCD has lead my naming conventions to differ and evolve, leaving me to sift through the lots of old jpg’s. This was difficult to do quickly, as many buried emotions bubbled up, forcing me to linger on various images.

Stepping back, I noticed reoccurring themes (beds being one of them). No conscious forethought was there when snapping the photos; still, there are spikes in a number of certain subjects. A few themes came up that didn’t seem so odd; landscapes, sunsets, sky’s, clouds. I clearly enjoy the outdoors and looking up. I have lots of images of sinks.

It made me wonder why I take pictures.

Some things catch my eye and I feel the urge to push the shutter. I let go and follow the….intuition, we’ll call it. It’s your natural aesthetic. Your resonance with the world. The intangible personality photographers put into their work. Your forget-about-everything-else-but-the-frame. Whatever we call it, it’s something that doesn’t change in a bounce-around sort of way; it evolves as you grow.

Here are some usual internal thoughts for the first few moments as I pull the camera out and ready position,

“I want to record this moment.”

“That looks cool.”

Wipe tear, “Whoa nature, cheers.”

“I have no idea why, but yes. Just. Yes.”

“Weird, but ok.”

“Yep.”