I like to ponder about my personal journey…
Where do I come from?
Where am I?
Why am I here?
How did I come here?
Where am I going?
Where do I want to go?
What can I do now to arrive there?
I often ask myself these questions, maybe more than I should. Multiple times a month, sometimes even multiple times a week or a day. Spending countless of hours having those reflections has become both a hobby and a need. I’m not really a New Year resolutions person, but I’ve recently used the opportunity given by the New Year to review the state of my journey. Indeed this year there was a happy coincidence that New Year happened soon after I left home to go 3000 km north to spend (at least) a few years above 65º North.
Moving here was a decision that obviously has big consequences on my life. While I’m probably not finished discovering what these consequences are about, there are some of them that I was able to guess when I took the decision to move. One is the potential impact of the change of environment on my photography. Part (if not most?) of my motivation for coming here was based on the assumption that it would positively impact my ability to photograph toys. Because of these big changes in my life I have many goals and a lot of expectations for the year to come.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Reflections and Objectives. Reflections by @Reiterlied posted from above 65° North.” quote=”‘What can I do now to arrive there?’ – Reiterlied”]
For me, the sticky note exercise has been done without actual sticky notes. My handwriting is terrible. I easily misplace stuff, particularly when stuff is small pieces of paper. I don’t want to realize at some point that the notes are not where they should be. So my notes are all digital. Even though I have huge expectations regarding my photography, the three objectives I picked have nothing to do with making actual pictures.
That said I also have other goals about making pictures. But for once I’m not afraid about not being satisfied with my work by the end of the year. If I don’t fulfill them, that means I’ll find better photo ideas. One of them was to go back into the studio. 2016 was the year I became an outdoor photographer, and I want in 2017 to try to go back in the studio once in a while. I don’t really have expectations regarding the outcome of indoor photography. I want to do it because it’s fun to experiment with artificial light. After all shouldn’t it be what jamming acoustically is all about?
Like Boris, I also think about these big pieces of glass when I hear the word objectives. So how to combine experimenting with indoor light, reflections, and lenses? Well by pointing a camera at a lens. I often like to put a lens in front of one of my eyes to see how the world looks like through it, but I’ve never put a camera and a lens in front of another lens.
Sharing the Adventures in The North of my Plastic Friends.
I wish you well with the studio journey. I love to be in control of everything and find the studio gives me that luxury. But I also love natural light. Pushing my mini studio to the window is a great way to do both, however you may not have the luxury of long daylight shoots above 65° at this time of the year.
I like studio photography with artificial light because you can experiment more easily than with natural light. I wouldn’t say I’m in control of everything mostly because of my not so great skills with artificial lightning. However it’s always fun playing around with lights and often the unexpected happens. What I like with outdoors is not only the light, which is very nice, but also the quest of finding the perfect environment that will either match one of my photo ideas or inspire me to improvise. And even when I didn’t succeed, the quest is always worth because it’s not… Read more »
Thanks for joining us here on our exploration journey, Reiterlied!
I am really looking forward to seeing how you are going to blend the in and outdoors in 2017!
Boris
Thanks! Well I don’t know yet how and when I’ll really go back to shooting indoor. I want to incorporate bigger builds in my photography but for that I need space. And because I’m in a temporary location with a limited amount of space, that might not happen before the summer… when my motivation will probably be low to stay indoor. Apart from that there might be a Woody project that might work better inside :D (Although for that one it might be better to use natural light than artificial light).