A New Day to Learn
I remember my era of photography when I was just learning. We all go through it. Learning ISO, shutter speed, aperture. This was before YouTube. I would go to Barnes and Noble to spend a small fortune on a magazine that included a CD with tutorials. I would then be all excited to go out into the field and attempt to use the settings I just read about.
Fast forward 20+ years and I find myself comfortable in my current style and genre. I try new ways to frame the subject and slightly new ways to edit colors and textures, but the basis is along the same lines. It’s been so long since I’ve just chased something else. But I’ve always felt the need to.
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Today was the day. We’re 5 days in on a 7 day beach vacation and I’m about birdied out. The 600mm has been getting all of the attention between the ospreys and the U.S. Navy aircrafts flying around. I grabbed the FujiFilm GFX100s with the 120mm macro lens and walked across the street to the beach. Inside, I had the feeling of childhood giddiness knowing that I had no idea what I was going to do. I was just going to wing it. Change settings. Find something. Anything. And photograph it.
The wind was blowing. Following the waves up and over the sand. Pushing and pulling the grass on top of the dunes. I thought maybe a silhouette photo of the grass in the yellow/orange rising sun in the background. Click. Click. Click. Nothing I liked. But it was a start.
There were birds flying over the water. Maybe the same thought but the birds as the subject in front of the sun. I took a few photos and moved on without looking at them. Birds is what I’m trying to stay away from this time out.
I instead changed my focus to the waves. Crashing on the beach and pushing up foam and bubbles. I’ve always adored long shutter speed photos of moving objects. Focusing more on the colors and movements rather than focusing on a thing.
I planted my feet on the hard, wet sand. Ocean water came in and covered them. The water was warm and soothing. I thought about how nice it was going to be to bring the kids in later.
With my shutter speed turned down to 10, I adjusted the rest of the settings to reach the correct exposure, and hit the release. Streaks of the white bubbles contrasted to the dark tan sand. This is where I needed to be.
This is the feeling that I’ve been chasing. The line between photography and art. Is it photography? There is no subject. Only colors. Is it art? Well, that’s subjective.
I stood in those waves, in my normal clothing. Just shooting and taking in the elements. Changing the settings and position of the camera. Feeling the water on my legs and wind on my face. Excited like I was over 20 years ago.
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