Back to Basics

Yesterday afternoon, I found myself photographing it again.  That tree. In our yard.  I learned most of my "technique" by shooting this tree.
When I got tired of the tree, I moved to my car...and gave it it's own moment of glamor.

This past weekend, I "attended" parts of an online seminar with Lindsay Adler (fashion photographer from NYC).  I find a lot of her work to be in-CREDIBLY inspiring...but I'll warn you (if you're going to Google her)...she has some nudity pictures on her website...*just want to give a heads-up to people with small kids with you.

She talked about doing shoots just for herself and the desire to create art.  I loved that idea...so often, I'm just thinking business and I rarely never take time to shoot for the love of art. By creating my own shoot, I'd have the freedom to push the edge where I want and take chances and make mistakes without feeling like someone is losing money at the expense of my need to be creative.  That's now on my "to do" list.

I also watched her shoot for about 30 min., and she knew exactly why she was doing what she was doing and the technicality behind it...the reason she uses specific lenses in certain situations...how light should fall on a subject's face, how to backlight properly, creating sunflare without losing a lot of contrast, how a female should be posed opposed to a male...uh, I wish I could say that was exactly how I shoot all the time!! Not so much.  Compared to her, I felt like my shooting style is best described as somewhat intentional chaos.  

So, as I was practicing shooting with sunflare yesterday afternoon, a part of me felt like I was taking a big step back to basics...but there's something good about getting back to basics.  I don't want to be someone who is always saying, "I'll learn that later" or "I've always wanted to know that but just never have taken the time to find out".  So, sunflare...I have NOT mastered you yet...we may always be frenemies, but I'm going to do my best not to let you get the best of me! :)

Here's to basics.