Saturday we drove around a little in search of the next battle. Weather was overcast, but in fact I did not worry at all. Basically I did not look for things to photograph, I looked for ideas for things to photograph. Let me explain:
I often say that the world is fractal. In every place you are, you can take photographs of infinite variety. You just have to look closer or look in directions or at things that you normally don’t look in or at. Still, if you keep doing so for a long time, you will feel that you know everything in the immediate surrounding, with the familiarity diminishing with distance, the distance getting longer and longer.
There is some truth to it, although due to the fractal nature of the world, it should not matter in even a lifetime. The problem is, it feels that way, therefore you sometimes have to make concessions.
One of the easiest ways to get out of the perceived rut, at least for a photographer, is to buy new equipment, for instance a new lens, or in severe cases to buy a new camera or even into a new camera system. That’s not an option though.
I currently spend money on furniture, and besides, I have done that. I had a bridge camera, bought a Nikon D200, upgraded to a D300, collected a total of 22 lenses for Nikon F mount, bought a Panasonic LX5, an Olympus E-P2 and OM-D, sold most of my Nikon equipment and finally bought more Micro Four Thirds lenses than I care to have or carry. Really, even if I wanted to spend the money, a new camera could hardly satisfy me. I’m perfectly happy with the OM-D and the only near-future change that I see is to sell the big, heavy Panasonic 7-14 (more than 300g!!!) and instead buy the tiny Olympus 9-18 instead 🙂
The other option is, to begin looking for different things, things that you normally don’t consider photographing, that are a-plenty but not ubiquitous, things that have a certain appeal. Something like bicycles, only that bicycles are on my list anyway.
That’s what we did on Saturday: scouting for new things to look for, for things that will make me see the immediate environment with new eyes.
Mailboxes are a good candidate. They are colorful, they can be contrasted with their surroundings, you see them often but not everywhere, and in a way they are a dying species. This is only one idea that I have considered, let’s see where I get.
The Song of the Day is “In Search Of The Next Battle” from an album “Best of the Valkyria Chronicles” by some Hitoshi Sakimoto. Unlikely as it seems, this is the soundtrack to a PS3 game. I had to think hard why on earth I have this album, especially because I neither have a PS3 nor do I own or have ever played that game.
Finally I remembered that it was part of the Humble Music Bundle. Hear it on YouTube.