Lately I have been thinking about what kind of photographer I want to be. If you browse my website you may be confused. Is he an abstract impressionist? Or a landscape and nature photographer? Or perhaps his passion is for making street, architecture and travel images? What is going on here?
As I’ve written about before, I tend to photograph what interests me in the moment. As a result, I often find myself jumping from one genre to another, with no overall purpose and no specific goal or intention to guide me. While I am generally pleased with the body of work I have created this way, it sometimes feels like I am just skimming the surface. That I need to spend more time doing less. To narrow my focus so I can expand my vision.
Take this week for instance. I had some errands to run up in Sonoma. Of course I brought my camera along. I heard the mustard grass was blooming, so I thought I would find some backroads to drive to see what I could find. My typical non-planned plan for the day. Get in the car and go. I ended up all over the map.
* * *
The day begins as I expected. It does not take long to find a field of mustard grass. I pull over to take a look.
I make a few images, then move along. Soon I am in the town of Sonoma, waiting for the farmer’s market to open. I wander around the town square and outside the Mission. Now it is shadows and buildings that catch my eye.
I gather what I need at the farmer’s market, then I’m back on the road, looking for more fields to explore. But instead I stumble upon a shuttered restaurant and music venue. I pull over, of course.
Then it’s on to Glen Ellen, where I stop to photograph some trees on the old Sonoma State Hospital grounds but find myself photographing the walls of a weathered maintenance shed instead.
Back in the car, I notice some interesting buildings and light as I drive through Glen Ellen. But I don’t take the time to stop. I return to Highway 12, where I come upon a field of mustard grass backlit by the sun. Smoke from a fire - I hope it’s a controlled burn — rises from the hills in the distance. I find a shoulder nearby and get out to have a look.
Then I am off to Santa Rosa, to pick up some wine. As I walk back to the car from the vineyard office a field of wildflowers and mustard grass with a group of oaks in the distance pokes me in the eye.
It’s a Kodak picture spot no one could resist. There is more to explore, but I am self-conscious and don’t want to ask permission to wander into their fields. So off I go. As I continue traveling the backroads, I come upon more fields of mustard grass. But there is nowhere to park so I snap mental images and move on. When I finally find a place to stop on the side of the road, I am rewarded with an interesting old metal ranch gate.
I make a few images and continue on. More narrow roads, more mental snapshots go past. I finally find a bit of shoulder and create a parking spot above a field of vineyards and mustard grass.
I make a few images, and move on again. After completing my errands, I head back down the same road, pulling off at another parking spot I had noticed on the way up. I hop out to make abstract images of the same field I’d stopped by a half hour before.
Then I am back on the road. More errands to run, more backroads to travel. I pass through some beautiful scenery, but I am burned out from all that stopping and starting. The camera stays in the bag.
* * *
Last week I wrote about the benefits of going out to photograph without a plan. This week’s ramble revealed the limits of doing so. As I looked back through the images from that day I realized I had been on the road for more than 8 hours, but only spent about 90 minutes making photographs. A half hour shooting fields of mustard grass; a half hour wandering around Sonoma; and a half hour of quick roadside stops, a few minutes at a time. The images I made reflect the fitful, chaotic nature of the outing. There is no cohesion, no style, no purpose that ties them together.
That is not to say I don’t like the pictures I made on the drive. I do. But more than that, I regret the images I didn’t make. The images I might have made if I would have slowed down. Spent more time in fewer places. Focused on one genre instead of many. Taken more time with any of the subjects reflected in the images above. Even as I was trying to squeeze photography in around my errands, there was plenty of room to act with more intention. To be more thoughtful about the images I was looking for. To be more proactive than reactive.
Because sometimes less is less.