I’m just back from an intense weekend in the Toronto area, giving two days of lectures (man, can this guy talk if you let him!) at the Art Gallery of Burlington. Met some wonderful people and had a blast. This week I’m studying for courses – Emergency First Response, Emergency Oxygen Provider, and PADI Rescue Diver – it’s going to be a long one! But at the end I’ll be one certification away from my PADI Dive Master, which is exciting. Anyways, in the last 4 days I released Vision Is Better Episodes 39 and 40 – join me as I talk about bags and SD cards and the single best thing I think you can do as a traveling photographer (or any kind of photographer for that matter!)
I hope embedding these here is helpful to you. I’d still be thrilled if you’d subscribe to this channel on You Tube and if you’d interact with me – either here on the blog or there on the Craft & Vision channel. I want this to be a relevant show for you and the best way I can do that is to hear from you – got questions? Let me know!
I didn’t create this video series as a replacement for the blog, and I know there’ve been more video posts recently, it’s just a busy time. Thanks for your patience! Have a great week. Go make something that stirs your paint.
Comments
Hey Dave,
Thanks for the great thoughts in episode 40. Going in empty is a great way of putting words to what I try to do when shooting. Thanks!
As I was sitting here listening to #40 I thought back to a missed opportunity rather than a missed image. In Nassau, Bahamas, last year where we stopped on a cruise, my wife and I were approached by a local man who said he thought he recognized me from a previous visit. Well, I had a smarta$$ retort in saying “you must have been drinking that day because I have never been here.” We both laughed and my wife and I continued on.
As I think back now, I see a tremendous missed opportunity. He would have made a great street portrait subject but I missed it. What really made this thought and got me to leave a comment was my wife was also thinking about an image that I have shown that I DID manage to take.
In an earlier time, I shot a lot with long and short zoom lenses for work (small town newspaper). Since retiring, I sold all my heavy DSLR bodies and heavy fast zooms in favor of the Fuji X-System gear (X100S and X-E1). So, now, instead of having focal lengths from 18mm to 450mm (in full frame 35mm terms) I have just a 35mm and 52mm. So “seeing” photographically is still a learning curve for me. This podcast gives me the encouragement to continue on and, to paraphrase your words, try to open my mind and eye to approaching what IS there rather than what I expect. Thanks, David!!
Good for you for continuing your diving education! I got my DiveMaster certification in the 1980s. While I never used the certification professionally, I feel that the training that led to the certification was so valuable and made me a smarter, safer diver which in turn made the whole underwater experience much more enjoyable.
I wish I’d heard Episode 40 a couple years ago. It would have saved me some mental anguish over missing the shots that I thought I should have gotten. I’ve been coming to this idea for awhile, but it’s good to hear it articulated so well and thoughtfully. A philosophy for life in general, really. Thank you.
P.S. – the gear discussion was good, too. I appreciate the advice for travel photography.
Epi. 40 was spot on, that’s for the kick in the shorts. I know I sometimes get too wrapped up in expectations of what I will see, and I know that has hampered my creativity. Thanks!
Hello David – thank you for your Vision is Better podcasts. After listening to episode 40 I have to say that it resonated strongly with me and my own experiences. I had a trip to Bali planned for late last year and did quite a bit of research on where to take the best landscapes before we went. I came home with very few landscapes and a portfolio of portraits. The reason was simple – the more I associated with the people of that wonderful island, the more I wanted to capture what I saw in its people.
This was serendipitous and unfolded as my stay lengthened. We had an enforced stay as there was a volcanic ash cloud that closed the airport for around ten days. The people of Bali are amazing – so content with what they have and so grateful for their circumstances. Their generosity is legendary. Naturally I forgot landscapes and was grateful for the chance to take images of these wonderful people.
Not on point at all but I just bought that Wacom Art tablet and it’s brutal on the pen nibs. I could get months, if not years on my old Intuos3 and never change a pen nib but with the surface on these new ones, I’m chewing them down to sharp edges almost weekly. Brutal.