We most relate to music, art, writing, and photography when it is a personal expression of universal truth. It need not be a monumental truth. Often it's just a passing thought or feeling to which most of us can relate. As photographers, it's imperative to recognize the underlying sources of our inspiration and go beyond the moment that we click the shutter.
An image of a white pigeon satisfying its thirst is not bird photography in the classic sense. And like many of the photos that grow on us over time, it isn't about the primary subject but rather what it represents and how it makes us feel.
Having always treated black-and-white photography as an afterthought, I landed on a project to pivot away from the comfort zone of unabashed color landscapes.
Critical to both the enjoyment and the end result of your photography is your mindset. Indeed, a client-driven photographer has to be keeping a close eye on the end result. However, if you are doing it for yourself, pay more immediate attention to how something makes you feel than how it looks on your LCD.
We experience being alone as either solitude or loneliness. Solitude is viewed as a peaceful and positive state, while loneliness is considered bleak and empty. Solitude is sought out while loneliness is inflicted upon us. So, what does this have to do with photography? Quite a bit, it would seem — both in how and what we photograph.
Our own voice, while inspired, can be drowned out by a negative one that quickly casts our work aside as unoriginal. This is where the figurative path can become a little thorny.
And here, it is felt and not seen because it is the absence of something and not the presence of it. There was no sense of time, only the low light like so many December days passed by.