The Some things to Capture

Several years ago when I was still homeschooling my children, a neighbor and dear friend had asked if I would watch her 4 year old daughter and help her get ready for kindergarten.  I gladly said yes and Monday - Friday, Alyssa would come to my house and spend the day with us while her siblings went to school and her parents went to work.  Each morning, I would have Alyssa look out of the front window and ask her what she saw.  In the beginning her response was an immediate, "I see nothing."  "Nothing?" I would counter.  "Do you see the trees?'  "Yes."  "Do you see the houses?"  "Yes."  "Do you see the cars?"  "Yes."  "Okay, Alyssa, what do you see?"  "I see nothing."

Eventually, when I would stand with Alyssa by the window and ask her what she saw, she would tell me countless things she saw: the trees, the soccer ball, the pink flower on the bush, the silver car, the clouds, the leaves, a bird on the branch, etc.  Alyssa's nothings, things she saw everyday and just ignored, became some things to behold and marvel.  Because of Digital Photography 1 (dp1, from now on) I have been reminded of those times with Alyssa.  Kate would often say in class, "Get your cameras out; have them ready to take pictures. Go out and shoot." and I would walk with my camera close at hand and say, "Shoot what?  I see nothing, well nothing worth shooting."

Surfing the web, reading photographers' blogs, examining photographs, and seeing a myriad of shots of various objects, I am starting to understand that my nothings worthy of a camera shot can be quite the some things to behold and capture.  This morning, on a cloudy, rainy day, I grabbed the dog's leash, an umbrella, and my camera.  While Antonio, the dog, sniffed the grass, marked a tree or two and leisurely walked up the street, I pressed the shutter button (checking the meter and adjusting as needed); held my breath (didn't have my tripod) and clicked at the somethings I see when escorting Antonio around the block.

Now it's off to read my Lightroom 4 book to learn how to correct,.... I mean enhance the photographs.

Every since August 2010 when my daughter, Maritza, began her college career playing soccer for UNL, I have packed my bags almost every weekend from about the second Friday in August to the first Friday in November, jetted and/or driven to Lincoln or some other college town to watch her kick it.  At the beginning of her first season, I took my camera along. I was determined to capture her moments on the field. Upon returning home late Sunday evening or early Monday morning, I would download the pictures onto my computer only to delete most if not all the pictures I took.  To say the photos were awful would be an understatement.  Eventually, I left the camera behind and hoped someone else got pictures I could snag and preserve in her scrapbook.

This year, however, Maritza’s third year, I am once again carting my camera around from university to university in hopes of securing my very own scrapbook worthy photos of her and the beautiful game. This past Friday, while staring out the window of a Southwest 737, I was rather shock to find myself thinking about my Digital Photography I class.  There I was watching the rain slide across the window when Kate’s words resonated in my subconscious: “Be creative. Take a moment to observe.  Photographs come from your life.  Overcast days are the best days to take pictures.  Always have your camera ready.”  Maaaaannnnnnnnnnn, my camera’s in my carryon bag situated in that nice overhead airlines encourage us to use. Wow, another light bulb moment.

After observing works by several photographers in class, there was one photographer and her pictures that I kept thinking about this past weekend. We didn’t discuss or examine her work but I saw them on Kate’s blog.

Julianne Kost is a photographer, speaker, author and Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist for Adobe.  She has taken pictures of some quite ordinary things, I pass by everyday, like telephone wire and with the use of her camera and computer creates some amazing photographs.  One of her beliefs is: “The computer isn’t merely a shortcut for what is possible with a camera. Instead, it’s about exploring what’s possible in no other medium and taking advantage of the flexibility and options for creative exploration.”

Julianne has written a book called: Window Seat: The Art of Digital Photography & Creative Thinking.  Because of her job and expertise in the field of photography, Julianne travels extensively.  By her own admission, traveling by plane isn’t something she loves so to help her pass the time she began shooting pictures from her window seat.

One of her “rules” for being creative is: “Replace your thoughts with intuition. In design, she saids, you learn design rules and then strive to break them.  In the art world, there are no rules.  Instead of thinking about the piece, what is has to convey, what it’s ‘for,’ and why I am creating it, I just focus on what’s in front of me and follow my intuition.”

Letting go, so to speak will be challenging for me but that is one way I feel I will be able to start learning to find magic in the everyday and capture the beauty on the weekends.

So although I didn’t have my new best friend, Canon eos Rebel, beside me on the runaway, I did have my iphone and decided to take it out and snap my own Window Seat photo before the flight attendant preceded to tell me all the lovely safety features of the Boeing 737 as I began my trip to Dallas.

What did I sign up for?

I had been thinking that now is a good time to take a class or two on subjects I am interested in learning more about.  One such interest is photography.  Not photography from a "I could make money taking photos of weddings, bar mitzvah, or baby showers," but photography from a "I could take out the camera on family vacations and not have my children running to take the camera out of my hands because my pictures are so bad."

While my son, a senior in high school, was at SCCHE signing up for a class that satisfied his dual enrollment status, I signed up for Digital Photography. As I entered into the classroom on the first day, the instructor asked how we were feeling.  One student replied, "Anxious."  I silently chuckled.  "Anxious"  I don't get that.  Suffice it to say, "Ignorance is bliss."

I was in happyville before class started but soon learned why anxiety would have been a welcome emotion to what I would be experiencing by the end of the class period.  Journals, blogs, profiling famous photographers, emails, camera ever in the ready just to name a few items on the "TO DO LIST".

All this weekend while watching a soccer ball get kicked across the pitch, I kept asking myself:
"What did I sign up for?" Right now, I am not so sure, my head is still swimming in a pool of anxiety and despair.  Hopefully by the end of these 16 weeks I will be able to say, I signed up for a Digital Photography class and received something even more rewarding than I could have imagined.