gdanmitchell
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 Re: Getting the photo vs the experience of getting the photo | |
snapsy wrote:
gdanmitchell wrote:
sum1sgrampa wrote:
My state of mind presently can be summed up in a recent experience. I had pretty good luck with Short-eared Owls about two hours from my home last year. So I went back this February and booked a room at a very nice B&B. Got to the SEO spot at sunrise and stayed till evening with very little luck. The plan was to go back the next morning at sunrise. But when I got to this lovely B&B and the host started talking about the breakfast she'd be preparing the next morning, that all started sounding like a much better idea. The thought of another day sitting in a freezing car staring out at an empty field in the middle of nowhere became less and less appealing. So contrary to everything I've ever done when I go on these trips, I stayed in for breakfast. This was blasphemy for me. I spent over an hour talking to the host over breakfast about the building that was built in the late 1800's. She told me about the surrounding area. We talked about photography. It just felt right.
And then I took a leisurely ride home and looked for roadside shots along the way.
Now some of this is probably just getting older. But I want to think it's also getting wiser and taking opportunities when presented, instead of chasing.
So photography is what brought me to that relaxing, informative morning. Just not in the way I had envisioned.
Gary
That’s a great story and it illustrates a truth about photography that I’m mentioned before, including in this thread: Making photographs isn’t always “fun” or comfortable. In fact, what is necessary to do photography (at least of some genres) is at odds with non-photographic pleasure experiences.
I’m as susceptible as anyone to the lures of a great dinner preceded by cocktail hour, a nice slow breakfast at the B&B, sleeping in and enjoying the accommodations, and so forth. But that’s not compatible with the kinds of photography that I do. So I’m likely to regard things like lodging and food as objective necessities rather than pleasures when out to do photography. If I stay in a motel, it is probably a Motel 6 level establishment — I’m only going to sleep there, not enjoy the facilities. I’m generally a bit of a coffee nut (yes, we have a serious espresso machine at home) but when shooting I rarely do more than grab a cup of quick hotel coffee before heading out, or else I skip the morning coffee entirely. In some cases I forego commercial accommodations entirely, since camping near my subjects gets me into the field more quickly… and sleeping in the back of my 4Runner is the most efficient of all.
Case in point. We recently returned from another photographic visit to Death Valley, the second in a couple of months. This time we stayed in cheap accommodations just outside the park, and we were out the door every morning an hour and a half to two hours before sunrise, driving in the dark to our first morning location. We stayed out all day, pausing midday to set up a little table and a couple of camp chairs for lunch and then napping in the 4Runner. Then we resumed photography, working until the light was gone, and then driving back to our cheap motel well after dark, stopping along the way for a quick meal before the restaurants closed.
Is that “fun?” Not in the conventional sense, and I doubt that many travel agencies would succeed with their customers if they proposed a “fun” trip like that. Is it “rewarding?” Yes, it is!
YMMV.
(On the way home we took a “layover day” along the drive, stayed it better accommodations, and found a nice French restaurant in town for dinner, and slept in the next morning before finishing our drive… :-)
All of the virtues that you attribute to staying at a Motel 6 are about choices, not the hotel. And you can make those same kinds of choices with any level of lodging luxury. It is entirely possible to make intentional, engaged photographs while staying at a very comfortable B&B with a great breakfast… and it is entirely possible to not take advantage of those comforts when you think that your objectives will be better met without them.
The implication that a photographer staying at a comfortable B&B is necessarily not “doing the work” is nonsensical and disproven by all of the fine work done by photographers staying at very nice B&B's… and basically every other kind of lodging approach known to the world of photography.
Did you not see the “YMMV” at the end of the post? ;-)
I have no doubt that one can make fine photographs while staying in nice lodgings. My point is that I don’t have the opportunity to enjoy those aspects of travel when I spend my full day from before sunrise until after sunset photographing and looking for subjects… and that I’m OK with that because my goal on these trips is photographic rather than the very real pleasures of a nice breakfast, a cocktail, and a lovely dinner.
For those prone to (intentional?) misinterpretation, I’m not saying that staying in a funky Motel 6 (or sleeping in the back of your car, or camping) makes you a better photographer. I’m saying that for some types of photography that I do, the necessities of the photography don’t align with the objective of enjoying slow mornings at the lodge. ;-)
And, yes, your adaptation of my earlier post is… amusing.
In my own travels, there are some situations in which I can enjoy both the photography and the accommodations. There was a lovely place in Venice…
YMMV.
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