Yes, photography is a solitary endeavor for me. I could stand to improve my rapport with portrait subjects (my wife and kids!) to get more emotion on the film.
Yes, photography is a solitary endeavor for me. I could stand to improve my rapport with portrait subjects (my wife and kids!) to get more emotion on the film.
I simply cannot relax and get comfortable enough to concentrate with the LF camera when others are around. It isn't a spectator sport or event. There is no high point of action for others to see. That little 'click' of the shutter is mine alone.
I have tried to be a social photographer, but others will ruin those quiet moments of satisfaction. I went out with a photographer friend once to work an area around her farm in a very rural area. It had rained hard the day before and patch tall prairie grass was laying over on a hillside. I thought to myself that at sundown, with the grass reflecting a bit more light than the surroundings, this will be an image that makes my day. My friend walked up beside me and made a political comment about how the scene reminded her of the destruction of coal mining. My day was over. Ruined. Partly my fault, I agree, but still I would have been better off alone. I haven't been out with her since and she doesn't understand the reason. Doesn't get it.
I am lucky, however, in that my girlfriend has a real understanding of the solitude. She has a keen interest in photography and when we're on a trip she'll take her dslr and go off on her own, leaving me to mine. She's also a writer so, she gets it.
There's a place I like to photograph along bluffs that lead to a beach. I like to go early in the morning when the only people out there are walking and are also into their own solitude. Only once has an elderly man stopped to watch. To his credit, he made no comment, just casually watched without intruding. Probably a photographer. Maybe he was a poet. My guess is he was just resting.
I also consider the LF photography time my time, and it seems selfish then it is selfish. It contrasts what I normally do as a photojournalist, which can have more of a run-gun attitude about it. But even then, I try to be alone in a crowd.
So, to me, the solitude is important, probably essential. The LF photography causes me to be alone to work, and the alone part helps me get in the right frame of mind for photography.
"I meant what I said, not what you heard"--Jflavell
Interesting thread and responses. It's not solitude directly that I seek (or need), but more and more I'm finding that photography has to be deliberate. IT (the photography) has to be the purpose and so less and less am I carrying a camera when traveling or attending an event. Are there times when traveling that I see something I'd like to photograph, but don't have a camera (other than the phone or a P&S)? Yes. However, even if the gear was with me, the time may not be there, or the solitude ...
LF landscape photography is my way of losing the consciousness of solitude.
Does that make sense? ;^)
For me, the best solitude loses awareness of itself.
Yes it makes perfect sense...to be perfectly alone with everything.Originally Posted by Heroique
... or to be perfectly alone with nothing.
I'm with the consensus, people photos, the interaction is important. If there are other photographers working (playing) together photographing a person, I'm interested in the social back and forth to see what registers with the subjects, etc...
For non-people outdoor photos, I'm a big Thoreau fan. A walk/journey and seeing things is most effective done by yourself. I don't mind other people or photographers around, but they are not part of the process. I don't mind my daughter going along once in a while, as I can be myself and she can find plenty of interesting things in nature that she doesn't bother me. While I'm curious outdoors, the curiosity of a child, like her or calvin&hobbes is contagious and sometimes helpful.
Essential, yet not always necessary.
Yes, there’s no better authority on in-the-woods solitude – but what an exceptional sense he had of “being” w/ plants, animals, and weather. Certainly the greatest practicing Transcendentalist, and maybe the best writer among them too, if one excepts Emerson when he’s hot.
I am able (most of the time) to tune out other people when I am photographing. The people in my photo club understand that when I bring out the LF gear, I will be in whatever location I am in for a bit. Usually, they have made their images, moved on and come back.
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