Re-Vision
December 19, 2010 
4 Comments
Being published may not be everybody’s dream, but I’ve read somewhere in David DuChemin’s excellent book “Visionmongers: Making a Life and Living in Photography” that almost everyone who picks up a camera for the first time and enjoys using it invariably, perhaps fleetingly, see their name as a byline for a published photograph. Whether you are a beginner who is venturing into the steep learning curve for a photography newbie or someone who’s been shooting for a while, there is a way for you to explore your love for photography in greater depth, and to share your images with an audience other than your family and friends.
At some point in your journey into image making, you might arrive at the proverbial “crossroad” where you have to pause and think of where you want to head next. Should you attend that next workshop? Is going pro right for you? Should you quit your high-power job and become a pet photographer like Grace Chon? Or do you prefer to perfect your technique and creative skills so you can take gorgeous images of your travels for friends and family to ooh and ahh over?
Many DSLR owners do not think beyond using their cameras to record their special days, but if you have that buzz of excitement every time you go out with your camera, you probably will experience your re-vision: a moment of rediscovery that will bring insight into the kind of photographer you want to be.
In my own journey I’ve been through a few revisions of my goals. In the 1980s my only goal was mastering exposure with a manual film camera. Then in the 1990s it was getting used to digital format, with the freedom of changing ISO in the middle of the same shooting session. In the mid-2000s, I found myself doing a 180-degree turn from people-less architecture and lonely landscapes into full-blown portraiture mania. And now, just six years after my first digital camera, I am working some 35-40 hours a week as a freelance commercial and fashion photographer.
As the decade comes to a close, here I am again, reinventing myself by registering at the amazing MatadorU travel photographer’s course, and my first assignment is: what type of travel photographer do you want to be? It’s certainly a loaded question, and less than a 100 words makes this new vision a challenge.
Hmong girls look longingly at balloons for sale in Sapa, Vietnam. Photo by Aloha Lavina.
Then this morning, I woke up at 1.55 am on the western coast of Koh Chang in the South of Thailand. No one was awake at that hour; the beach was asleep. A stubborn wind rustled the palm leaves, and an almost full moon glowed, its faint light tracing a beautiful line across the water.
The answer to the question came to me. I am excited by light, and the way it behaves and makes every thing beautiful. Light is what excites me and pushes me to become a better photographer, whether in my commercial or editorial fashion work, my personal projects, or travel. So the kind of travel photographer I want to be is “someone who tells stories using light to take the audience to the three-dimensional moment captured in an image.â€
What about you? What kind of photographer do you want to be? Tell us in your comments!
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I like taking pics, a lot, and I don’t suck at it. I’ve sold my photo work for publication, but when anyone asks me, I dismiss the idea that I’m a professional photographer. There’s probably some psychoanalysis to be done there, but mostly I think it’s because I think of myself as a writer who can take an okay picture, not a photographer who can write an okay story.
Mentally, I’m doing a little find and replace on your question, replacing photographer with writer. It’s a good question for writers too. I’m crazy for words like you are for light, and funny, my answer would be, I think, the word version of yours.
Hi Pam, I used to deny that I was a “professional” photographer. Being an amateur was so much fun, and the gas money I got paid for the first few publications did not amount to a living. Sometimes it’s enough just to love what you do. Which is why you keep doing it. Being crazy for light or words or macrame does wonders to a person. It’s an obsession that keeps us happy, I think. Art feeds the soul.
Hi,
Saw on your twitter that you are in Bhutan.
I hope you enjoy your time here.. and waiting to see your photographs from here.
Happy new year wishes from warm, but cold THimphu
aby
Hi Aby, Hope you are keeping warm. I was in Paro for New Year’s with the first snowfall. I hope you make it to Phobjika Valley and Punakha sometime, it is beautiful there, especially Phobjikha. Take care and Tashi Delek!
Aloha