This week I had every intention of getting out and photographing something new, but the week got away from me as priorities of being a homeowner took over (talking to landscapers, tracking down and electrician, trying to get my eavetroughs replaced...fun, fun stuff right?). So instead I had a look back at photos from my recent trip to Lousisiana that were in part a catalyst for this blog. Part of my to-do list is to put together a collage frame of photos from the trip. Thankfully my wife took the vast majority of our photos, because honestly I haven't been all that excited about what I brought back.
I went down there with my camera (Olympus EM5 Mark II) and one 25mm lens (50mm fullframe equivalent for those not in the know of micro 4/3 sensors). My challenge I assigned myself was to take one lens, shoot a ton of photos, and force myself to be creative because of my limitations. Like, in my head I'm picturing myself walking around the french quarter of New Orleans, and honing my skills as a street photographer. Can you guess how fast that backfired? Now it's not that I'm unfamiliar with the lens because it's been on my camera for 80% of the time that I've owned it. But after a long period of not shooting on a regular basis, this probably was not the time to put restrictions on myself. I own a 14-150ii, which can't be a more ideal lens for travel, other than I've never been satisfied with the sharpness. I mainly shoot with prime lenses and those travel zooms have never been known for their sharpness. It's one thing I might be snooty about in photography: primes are always better.
So I start shooting, and I'm not happy with what I'm getting. I feel like I'm taking (for lack of a better term) tourist snapshots and get a little discouraged that I'm not getting what I envisioned. In retrospect, I was just rusty, and trying to not get down on myself, but coming up a bit short. So I just stopped shooting as much. Couple that with travelling with some new people that I only recently met, who I am becomign self concious of taking photos around, and feeling like I'm holding up the group (which was all in my head). So I start taking less and less photos and just try to take in the scenery and be in the moment a bit.
Fast forward to the end of the trip and I've shot a fraction of what I hoped I would, and what I do have hardly encapsulates what the trip was about and what we did and experienced. So I put off looking at them much until now. And you know what? I'm still not entirely happy with the volume of what I brought back, but I do have a few that I do enjoy and I'll take that as a win. I'm trying to remind myself that there was a time not very long ago that we didn't document every moment of our lives. We had 24 or 36 frames on a roll of film. For a few years in the late 2000s, I worked at a one hour photo lab and saw so many rolls of film get destoyed and summer vactions forgotten because someone openned a camera back and exposed the film, or the camera just jammmed, or (my favourite) a horse at summer stepped on the one disposable camera that they had.
So what did I get that I am happy about? I tried to find a few that I did get that could kind of summarize the trip, capture some happy memories, but also satisfy my need as a photographer to get some "quality" photos.
My wife exploring a beautiful garden at a haunted plantation:
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