The Road Ahead
Who doesn’t think about the road ahead? Even if you’re successful with living in the moment, one could argue the value of the moment if it is filled with hurt and pain. Do moments absent of wonderful feelings make the pleasurable ones even more enjoyable? I’m am not here to decipher the psychology of how living in the moment should feel or not feel, nor am I qualified to do so.
What I do know is that when I schedule a photo assignment, no matter how well I have planned for or thought about my chances for a good session, what really matters is what is in my field of view at the moment I release the shutter on my camera. Of course there are good times, and bad times to take photographs, and sometimes the bad times end up being the best time.
I am a self proclaimed non-technical kind of photographer. All of the pictures I take are done using a storytellers perspective. You’re not going to see that in your cameras instruction booklet. There are trial and error methods with more errors than anything else in my bag of learning. I would go as far as to say, for every 100 photos I shoot I might keep 1 to 10 that are worthy of me telling stories with. It’s just how it is! I’m not ashamed, I’m just glad I’m not buying film for my craft! Lol
I say the same thing about writing. I don’t write novels, but who knows what the “road ahead” will be telling me to do or not to do? For those reasons I do live in the moment, it is what works best for me…at the moment! I don’t plan ahead about what I will write. I am driven by a thought that gives me an idea about photos I would like to shoot as much as I am driven about photos that give me ideas about stories to write. Everything is so cyclical for me, it is my world and I enjoy living in it very much.
One of the biggest inspirational tools I have in my possession is my headphones. Rarely am I writing without listening to some playlist that not only feeds my creative spirit, but it also adds a physical rhythm to my typing. In other words I am typing to the timing of the music I am listening to. Now this may come as a surprise to many but my go to playlist is a Nat King Cole list filled with soft, smooth, jazz vocals. There is this post WW II connection that fills my heart when I am writing and it allows me to transport myself back to a time I wish were still surrounding us.
My road ahead can and should be different than yours or anyone else for that matter. Then again, it is always ok to take a little from many and make it into something that is ours. My road ahead is filled with inspiration from other like minded people who understand that creativity is a verb, people who have shown me that is ok to look at the road ahead, even when it means learning how to live in the moment!
Talk soon…
G