Is the experience your reason?

The experience is the reason; the photograph is the result. I developed this philosophy from the first time I clicked the shutter.

For those of you unfamiliar with my start in photography, fourteen years ago I signed up to go on safari with the Sierra club, having nothing to do with photography. I received a list of recommended items to bring, which included a 300mm lens. I walked down to my local camera store, let them know I was going on safari and that I needed a 300mm lens and camera. They asked what brand of camera I was familiar with, and I replied: “what brands do you have?” What started as the trip of a lifetime became the journey of a lifetime.

From the moment my feet hit that rich red soil I fell in love with Africa- the smells, the sounds, the people, and the plethora of exotic wildlife; it was pure magic. That first safari was in Tanzania when the migration was headed north to Kenya. We stayed in a true mobile-tented camp in the heart of the Serengeti, and the migration stormed through our camp; an experience that remains in my top ten African experiences to this day! We visited the Maasai tribe, WaDatoga tribe, Hadza bush people, and a local Maasai women’s group. Our safari also took us to the Ngorongoro crater (one of the 8 wonders of the world with its own big 5), Lake Manyara (known for having lions up in the trees), and Tarangire (filled with iconic Balboa trees and herds of elephants, buffalo, and zebras); a true classic African safari.

I clicked the shutter at everything because it excited me. There was very little thought about composition, light, settings, or anything else related to making a beautiful photograph. At that time, the subject itself made the photograph. Over the next several years I discovered that it is NOT the subject that makes a great photograph, but the light, background, and composition. Ultimately, learning one’s craft well enough to dramatically capture the passion one feels when clicking the shutter is critical when making images that connect and captivate the viewer. This was the motivation behind creating the spirit-N-Light workshop series, which helps photographers to build these skills.

Moving forward, people are now posting and viewing 80 million images a day on the internet, and there seems to be a negative shift towards portraying the perfect scene rather than capturing the real experience. Recently, there has been a lot of chatter about travel images that are styled and presented as if they are intimate and ‘one of a kind’ even when they were set up by one photographer and then copied or photographed by another. Images should inspire us to explore, enrich our lives, and expand our view of the world; not make us want to rush around the world to copy someone’s view and experience. I discussed more on this subject in the earlier post: “Are you guilty of chasing the photograph?”

Travel should be for the love of new life-changing experiences, a personal journey of discovery,  and not about the perfect image. Travel should be about the excitement of the adventure, filled with the unexpected, and capturing the experience from your inner soul. I find it quite sad that a person’s motivation to travel to an exotic destination would be for the purpose of copying an image, only to share it as a badge of honor that they too have been there.

It is a privilege to be able to experience magical places in the world and one should embrace every moment. Copying an image, missing a shot or being frustrated by not producing the perfect image should never interfere with an amazing experience that most people in this world will never have the opportunity to experience.

Here are a few links to several articles on this topic:

How social media perpetuates cliché photography

How Instagram is changing travel

Don’t be content with merely copying what you have seen before on the Internet.

Go, explore, and impose your personal vision on every image you create.