well, it’s been a while. the suck is strong in this one. i’ve been busy and a bit burned out, so the blog has taken a back seat. but it’s time to get her going again, so here we go.

i mentioned i’ve been a bit burned out, and truthfully i’ve been a bit mentally fried from the election in the US and its fallout. i used to escape to nature in order to recharge and escape the mental crazy, but even the few trips into the mountains that i’d taken had resulted only in my viewing of the fires of this past summer - resulting in further mental degradation. and so i got away from photography altogether for a bit, and made a return to making of music. i have numerous musical projects halfway done or at least with a bit of a musical idea, so i escaped into a musical idea - one that was happy, a spirit lifter. after a few years of rarely touching anything musical other than the piano on occasion, i found a much more deft touch on mixing down a song and the use of effects. in the past as i’ve made music, (quite immature in that regard might i add) i would do my best to add as many “cool” sounds as possible - even at the expense of busying the song or at the expense of the feeling the song provided. i found myself this time using much more restraint, and i credit this to photography and my growth in that art form.

i have a wonderfully horrible habit of starting a book, reading a few chapters and forgetting the book exists. sometimes i remember the book exists for another chapter or two only to again be hit with my anti-elephant-ness. other times, i have the horrible habit of reading through some lessons all the way through, perhaps outlining what i feel are key points - never to be read again. my last exploration into Guy Tal’s The Landscape Photographer’s Guide to Photoshop ended with him stating that before beginning an edit of an image to recall as best we can the feelings we felt when photographing the scene. if that’s not possible, we should instead concentrate on what the image makes us feel now, as we look at it on the computer. as we edit, take steps in the edit to further enhance those feelings. as was the case in music, oftentimes i would attempt to make the image look as “cool as possible” in my earlier days. i haven’t read any more of that book for one reason: i realized the importance of his statement, and i knew if i progressed in the book i would forget this point. so i made it a point to stop there and practice it with each image as i process them.

there’s one facebook group i visit with regularity - it’s a private photography group created by a photography book writer and class developer. i’ve taken some of his classes, gotten and received some great advice there. someone recently asked in that group, “is my image too X” where X can really be anything. i asked him if the fact it was so X helped evoke the feelings he was trying to evoke, but he wasn’t sure what feelings he was trying to evoke. so i told him to look up an emotions list on google and see if he felt any of those things when looking at his image, and if so did the X in his image help him or detract from his feelings of those emotions. if you’re struggling with expressing yourself in your photography - or your music, or any other art form, look at the emotions you’d like to evoke from the person experiencing your art and as you progress with your piece, ensure those emotions are being enhanced. but having a starting point or vision will help immensely.

i used to adjust a slider in lightroom or photoshop and ask myself, “does this make the image look better?” i may go back and forth with undo and redo, and finally i’d conclude one way or the other. but better is very subjective, and i’ve gotten away from that. i now ask myself, “how does this change make me feel? does it make me feel more happy or less happy? (if happy is one of the emotions i’m trying to express) if more happy, the modification was a success. if it made me feel less happy, i need to undo and go a different route.

if you’re looking to be more expressive in your art, then “cool” is not the route to take. to be successful in this regard, it helps to have a starting point or vision of what you want the viewer (or listener, etc) to feel. then as your art comes to fruition, make sure that the modifications you make are more fully causing that emotion to be felt by you.