JWilsonphoto
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Funny that many of us have been thinking similar thoughts re: aviation photography. Yesterday, amidst my very unusual boredom, I pulled up Red Bull TV and watched a string of features on the top surfing photographers in the world. First thing that struck me was all of the "bleeps!" I guess I must lead a sheltered existence because I don't know anyone who has to be bleeped on every other word. The second thing that struck me was wondering why everyone associated with Red Bull has a death wish......... Once past those questions I watched for several hours and was mesmerized by the incredible beauty of the cinematography/still photography. Every once in a while I get overwhelmed by the feeling that I've spent 40 years creating a body of mediocre work. This usually hits me while I'm soaking up some other creative person's incredible imagery. Realistically I realize that I have been blessed with a wonderful and rewarding career, involving hundreds of fantastic clients and thousands upon thousands of experiences, but sometimes I look back on my work and I feel like I should be getting in line for the most diligent mediocre photographer award.
I quit shooting air shows in general a decade ago and the reason is precisely echoed in your comments here. How many different ways can you shoot the same gray airplanes doing pretty much the same thing? Maybe it's time to move aside and make room for a younger generation who doesn't have a half a million images of airplanes spinning around on their hard drives. Honestly, if Jan Arie called me and said "Let's meet up at The Grand Canyon and wander for a week........" I'd be very excited at the prospect. I realize that there are those rare occasions/opportunities that allow us to shoot something/somewhere that we never have before and those are cool, but my heart is yearning for a return to the landscape, wildlife, seascapes, something exciting and rare.
Funny, one of the Red Bull surfer/photographers, whose dialogue was largely bleeps, kind of summed up what many of us seem to be feeling. He talked about the years when there were a handful of photographers shooting surfing, and out of that number there were a few that shot at the pinnacle. Over the last decade he looked around him at events and realized the rise of digital, extremely accurate autofocus/exposure cameras, accessible big white and black lenses, has contributed to encouraging the masses to attend and pretty much all shoot the same thing. He grudgingly described developing his techniques and perspectives over the decades, only to have some newbie with gear from "Borrowlenses" set up over his shoulder, rip off a hundred exposures and move on. Coming to this realization caused him to change his whole shooting philosophy, abandoning the now heavily populated perspectives available to the masses. He decided that he was either going to quit, or throw himself into the jaws of the action and risk life and limb to capture imagery the likes of which has not been seen heretofore, he chose the latter. The results are amazing, humbling, more than a bit terrifying, and his techniques will more than likely get him posthumous awards at some point. Obviously I'm not delusional enough to fling myself into those types of situations in the quest for rarer imagery, but I think we can all empathize with his thought processes. For each of us there's a next level we would like to grab on to, and that's one of the beautiful things about what we love. I think, even though I have been blessed to log a lot of it, air to air work is still one of those "rarer" categories for most, for some just the thrill of shooting from the other side of the crowd line at an air show is the thrill of a lifetime and it's a kick to be able to provide that opportunity at times.
Seems like our challenge is, wherever one finds themselves along the photographic continuum, don't allow boredom to creep in, don't put your gear on the shelf just because you can't fire up to shoot another gray airplane. These amazing tools that we own and the desire and talent that God has blessed us with can take us on many wonderful rabbit trails over the life of our photographic journey, find something that rings your bell, maybe a bench by the sea  , maybe a snowmobile rally, maybe a grandchild's portrait, whatever keeps the flame alive. The good thing about MA2A is, we post every subject imaginable, it's just how we roll, so keep up the great work!
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