Perceptions of place and nature
Will be traveling soon, so of course the most important question is, which cameras to bring, and which lenses?
This is, as always, a question of subject matter.
I've learned that it's best for me to bring one camera with me, and one lens. Fewer decisions makes easier work.
There's also the question of whether to bring a tripod, and whether to fuss with trying to lay hands on the ND filter necessary for serious landscape work.
Probably not, since I won't be traveling alone, and I rarely find myself able to get into deep photographic focus when I'm with another person.
I might, however, do a pop-up newsletter around this trip, photos only.
Thinking so much about gear is probably a sign that I'm not photographing enough.
Also got a new photo book. Tim Davis's I'm Looking Through You. Quite enjoyable, the kind of thing I'm aimed at making.
This opinion is possibly just a result of the fact that it contains a whole essay about this but the thing I like about it is that the pictures are punchy and graphic and they also have content. They're of things, not just themselves.
There's a lot of really good photography out there now-- niche, art-y stuff, but good-- that's just-- a picture of a hose or something, or paint peeling off of a wall. And it's a beautiful picture of a hose or a wall, and I am envious of it because I know how hard it is to take pictures that simple and graphic. But I don't want to look at a whole book full of that kind of thing, because there are so many books full of that kind of thing.
Which is a little bit odd because this is also sort of what got me into photography in the first place, was realizing that you could take pictures of ordinary things and make them mesmerizing, if you were clever. And I take a lot of ordinary-things, walking-around photography kind of pictures.
But I don't have a lot of interest right now in making a book like that.
I bounce around a lot in terms of topics -- remember six months ago when I was mostly taking pictures of dogs? -- but right now I'm mostly interested in books that are about places. And I like the feeling that I get when someone has seen a bit of my work and is talking to someone else about me and says, "Oh, you should talk to Nat, they've travelled around California a lot."
So I might be a photographer of California.