Transitions, Transformations and a Little Photography
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The Sage Inner Voice
There are times when I feel like it’s getting a bit crowded inside my head - yes I’m one of those people who can really get stuck in my head and then the different stories start to spin and all those voices take on a different perspective of the story and wow it can get busy and noisy in there. What is often not as easy to do is to slow down the hubbub and focus on that small quiet voice - the one that is not loud and overbearing, but persistent nonetheless. I like that little voice - it is often the one that speaks common sense or at least asks questions that prompt me to re-examine thoughts that I felt were etched in stone facts.
I’m not sure when I started being aware of that little voice inside or even when I stopped giving it equal air time, but as I’ve grown older that voice has become more and more important to me.
Coming Out Of The Shadows
A few years ago I joined an online photography community ( A Year With My Camera) and I found such inspiration and camaraderie among the members. During that time I stumbled across the concept of liminal spaces (defined as a place or state of transition - the “in-between” moments where you are no longer where you were, but not yet where you are going). This concept intrigued me and I started to see liminal spaces all over the place - which led me to photographing them to try and capture that feeling of transition. I wrote about it in this blog post.
Little did I know at the time that this rabbit hole was going to lead me to all sorts of self discoveries that changed the way I view myself and my world. I love the mystery of liminal spaces - the not knowing where they lead or where I will end up.
Backyard Safari
I have been working through a 52 week creative photography course which has helped me to develop/hone some new creative concepts and stay engaged and inspired throughout the year. Week 46 of 52 was about storytelling and featured the prompt Backyard Safari. I liked the idea of this prompt as it encouraged me to view my backyard in a different manner - with fresh eyes - curious to showcase what I see - trying to present it in a different perspective.
One of the things I liked best about this prompt is that it encouraged me to stay close to home and not feel that I needed to venture to some new exotic place in order to find something photo-worthy.
Editing An Image
I thought that I’d take a blog to go through some editing that I did with my Zambia images as I spent some time with Michael and learned a few new tricks. He also helped me to remind myself not to be so lazy and short cut on editing - sometimes I’m not the keenest editor, but it can make such a difference.
I’ll start by saying that if you shoot raw format images (asI do) - you will have to edit your images as they come out of the camera rather flat looking. This is on purpose as the camera has not applied any editing to the image - all the information is preserved and it’s up to the photographer to edit the image. Jpeg images on the other hand have computer applied edits to them and are often quite good - unless you’re working on a more dramatic edit.
The Why Rather Than the What or How
I have just finished a week at a photography retreat in Kingsbrae Gardens, New Brunswick with Freeman Patterson. This is my second time attending this retreat and I have again found myself to be inspired, uplifted and just moved to a new place in understanding why I do what I do with my camera.
The week is not a workshop - there is no learning new technique or trying to understand the technicalities of my camera or craft - it is about delving into the Why. The week is filled with conversations, visits to artists working in different media and open time to spend photographing in the gardens or around town - any way we wish to use the time.
Exploring the Lower Zambezi
After spending 5 wonderful nights in South Luangwa exploring the area on game drives and through a walking safari we moved on to the second location of our safari adventure - the Lower Zambezi. This is a much different area as the water levels are controlled by a dam whereas the Luangwa River remains a naturally regulating water course resulting in significant water level changes throughout the year.
The safari adventure transition started with a drive to the Mfuwe Airport with a stop at a few local shops looking for the green tomato chutney we had become addicted to at Mwamba.
Finding Creative Inspiration
Well there’s a loaded question! Do I go after what is inspiring or what is creativity? Actually, I attended a photography talk by David DuChemin at the new Calgary Library in the east village downtown December 2024. It’s an amazing building with interesting architecture and design elements. Spending time there made me itchy to grab my camera and explore the lines and curves. Maybe that alone is inspiration - something that compels me to take action and get out of my head and get creative.
I’ve long been a fan of David DuChemin’s photography and writing - he has a number of photography books which often feel more like books on life and the creative process than strictly photography - so they are applicable to any creative pursuit.
Values, Comfort Zones and Growth
I have sat down to write this blog post a number of times and I keep getting stuck - as usual this caused me to pause and reflect on the why. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand what values are - they are the rules or guideposts that we use to define the boundaries of our lives and how we want to live our life - in essence they form our identity. When we’re living authentically within those guideposts there is a feeling of congruity to our lives - a sense of meaning and purpose with an everything is right in my world kind of feeling.
It also wasn’t that I didn’t know what my core values are - I’ve spent time working through this and figuring out what is important to me and how I want to show up in my life, no, it seems to me that there was a disruption - a discordant feeling about what I say are my core values and how I was living my life.
Rising Up
I’m not sure that I was as intentional about starting this year off differently than I could or should have been, but regardless - I found myself wrapping up 2025 with some feelings of unrest and vague distraction. I also found myself spending more time online than I like and less time getting outside pursuing my passion of photography and just being in nature.
I also found myself falling into some habits that I know are not productive or good for my mental health - things such as comparing my images and progress with others - that’s a rabbit hole that never leads to a good place. Wondering what my photography is about and trying to come up with some way of making it financially viable - ugh what better way to suck the joy out of something. Which led to second guessing and questioning the reasons that I get out with my camera at all - a definite start to a negative spiral.
Doing Deep Work
I’ve been doing some reading (shocking I know) about a concept referred to as Deep Work. Cal Newport digs into this concept in his book of the same name and I found myself fascinated with exploring this further (there’s some irony in doing deep work on deep work, but I digress).
The idea of deep work is spending focused and significant time on substantial efforts of craftsmanship - and the idea of craftsmanship is not restricted to things that you make by hand - it refers to any endeavour. In our current culture there is so much emphasis on productivity and efficiency with praise going to “multitaskers” and those who can juggle multiple projects or concepts at the same time.
I have come to be quite skeptical of multitasking - I used to think that I was proficient at juggling and completing a variety of tasks simultaneously,
AI and Photography
First off I will mention that I’ve received a number of notes requesting a post featuring my cat (although I wonder if the messages are generated by said cat - she is pretty smart and enjoying learning AI with Kory) - so here it is.
I thought I’d start out not bold, but just honest and state the obvious fact - AI is changing photography. What do I mean by that? Well there is a whole spectrum of influence from camera and lens technology (tracking systems, autofocus and face recognition software) to editing and denoise/sharpening software - all the way to AI generated images that are passed off as actual photographs.
That’s a pretty broad spectrum of influence and I haven’t even gone into the fact that artists’ work is being used to educate AI programs to produce better images.
Imposter syndrome
I have been seriously taking photographs for almost 10 years now and during that time I’ve taken thousands of photos, however (no surprise) not all of them have been “keepers” (that is ones that are worth keeping and bragging about or printing them). I must admit that when I first started taking photos, I sometimes despaired of ever becoming consistent at capturing images that I would be proud to show to others. That sentiment quickly morphed into despairing of ever taking images that truly reflected what I saw in my mind’s eye - my photographic evolution has been marked by despair.
I think that photography is a bit like golf - every once in a while you have a great shot that keeps you hanging on to the thought that you might just be good at this only to come back to reality when the same situation results in a series of duds. It’s that occasional wow shot that keeps me going.
Compasses and Directions
I’ve had some interesting conversations lately about the future, direction and purpose of life and while sometimes these conversations can be a bit daunting and heavy - especially when the forward path is murky and unclear - I have been finding myself uplifted by them.
I was recently asked to participate in a luncheon for a youth group with members nearing the end of high school and next life steps looming for the students. A group of “elders” and recent graduates were asked to provide a slide with information about their career, what made them get into their career, what sustained them and also what advice they’d give to someone considering this career. It really got me thinking back a few years as I’ve just passed 3 years in retirement after a 38 year working life.
I approached my slide as though I was speaking to a younger version of myself and trying to tap into my motivations and advice.
Expectations and Growth
It’s ironic that this is a common theme for me in my writings - expectations - disappointment and growth. Maybe there is something here for me to learn - or relearn - or keep on learning. The excitement of the first day of the retreat led me to expect all sorts of amazing photographs to be made in subsequent outings and the morning of day 2 just didn’t live up to those expectations.
Interestingly we’d had a conversation about something similar the evening before - Jean-Pierre spoke of a workshop he’d been to many years ago where he’d been given an assignment the first day and he’d nailed it! The feedback and discussion were full of promise and potential - leading him to think that he understood what he was at the workshop to learn - bring on the next assignment please! Unfortunately, things did not pan out as expected - the next image did not live up to his expectations of feedback
Autumn Colours - Photography Retreat
We’re sitting around a table in the dining hall, remnants of dinner on the table - a water glass, crumpled napkin and crumbs from the chocolate dessert confection. There has been animated conversation as we catch up - four photographers who met for a week at Kingsbrae Gardens (link) in New Brunswick for a week last July - four people from different backgrounds and with different interests - at different stages of life and photography - and yet here we were - reunited for a week long photography retreat at a small resort in the Eastern Townships about an hour and half east of Montreal.
Jean-Pierre taking a lead and asking each of us - Why are you here? What do you want to get out of this week together? What will bring value to your time here together?
Switching Gears - Getting Creative
It’s no wonder that I’ve been in a bit of a creative dry spell with the 104 days of renovations occurring this summer. It’s hard to carve out time for self care let alone creative pursuits, however I did a few things to try and make sure that all was not totally lost and I think that it helped me to switch off from the stress of the renovation chaos at times.
I started working with a bird photography coach and this was really helpful for getting me out and about during the early days of the summer and then we switched gears to editing and Isaac showed me some great new work flow ideas that I have yet to fully utilize. I’m afraid that during the final days of renovations and setting the house back up that things got a bit too chaotic for me to continue, so I put things on hold for the month of September and now I need to get back into these sessions.
Camera Settings and Life
This post started out being a technical post about exposure and the use of exposure compensation, however when I started to write the outline I realized that there are some very interesting parallels to wellbeing and living a balanced life, so here goes….
We’ll start off with a bit of technical stuff and I’ll try not to make it too dry. Our cameras are designed to measure the amount of light in a scene and to try and come up with a balanced exposure so that there are not areas that are too bright or dark - the camera is programmed to see the world at neutral or “middle grey” in order to not over or underexpose the scene. This is an important limitation to understand in cameras because it helps to identify when it’s a good idea to take control and use manual mode on a camera to get the exposures that you want.
Liminal Spaces
I’m not sure if that is actually an accurate heading - I am exploring some new directions photographically, but they are places I’ve explored previously - I’m just doing this exploration in a slightly new way. What I mean is that I have joined forces with a group of three other photographers who I originally met in the AYWMC Group (A Year With My Camera ) and we’ve decided to challenge each other and work on a collaboration together. The group consists of Heather (Nova Scotia Heather ), Fiona and MZ. They are a rather formidable group of creatives with very different styles and approaches with a primary emphasis on abstract and multiple exposure images. I’m like the Sesame Street song (One of These Things Is Not Like the Others) with my primarily bird and nature images.
Visit to Haida Gwaii - First Impressions
We’ve just returned from a week aboard the Afterglow and a wonderful trip with Jenn and Chris from Ocean Light Adventures and I can honestly say that we could have easily spent much more time exploring and learning about the Haida culture and beautiful landscape. This trip came in the middle of our home renovations and we couldn’t afford to be away any longer than a week, so I’m glad that we went - it was a much needed break and with no cell service for most of the week - a wonderful time to be unplugged. Amazingly the world did not end and no significant renovation event occurred because we were not available.
The Creative Voice
I’m being a bit facetious, however I feel that while creativity is something very personal, I see the term tossed about with little care for how unique and personally expressive it can be. To me it is the intersection of motivation, curiosity and play and each of these components are required for it to come about. There are many times when I’ve been curious and playful, but have taken no action on the thoughts - hence no creative output. I’ve also found myself motivated to take action and curious, but it seems that I can reach a roadblock very easily as judgment and self criticism quickly causes the curiosity to stall. I believe that the playfulness is a key component as it is what drives past the barriers and self imposed constraints to exploration - it allows me to experiment and fail and learn and try something new.