The Blog has remained dark since my return from the grand school bus adventure across Europe to Mongolia over a year ago. I was encouraged, and even inspired, to start writing again after a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a friend. It’s taken me awhile to put it to print however.
My passion for photography has been re-ignited from its quiet slumber like a volcano erupting after years of silence, lying quiet and dormant, until one least expects its awakening.
I had a break-in at my house a number of years ago where all my camera and computer gear had been stolen. The laptop was a quick and easy replacement. The camera gear, not so much. My yearn for photography had been ebbing, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to “say”, the industry was changing, replacing my gear meant going all DSLR. The theft had apparently been the final straw. Like Kodachrome slide film, we faded into the night, quieting letting go
It will be 2 years ago next week that I headed off to the Galapagos Islands for a “once in a lifetime” trip. A reward for having spent the previous few years advocating my mom’s health care through a very difficult time, and then some of my own. She insisted that I finally buy myself a new camera before leaving. So I did. It didn’t work. I was, stunningly, offered one to borrow. I am so blessed and grateful by this simple act of kindness, from what was then a complete stranger, in the middle of nowhere. It has changed my life in ways I can not even begin to fully yet realize.
Maybe it was the blue footed boobies, tortoises, or iguanas, or maybe just the sparkling seas and blue sky after such a stormy and heart wrenching period in my life, but inspiration struck. The passion was reignited. That small nagging little voice down in the dark depths of my being, began screaming, quite boisterously to be let back out into the sunlight. The beauty I was seeing, everywhere, was yearning to be expressed via an art form I had ignored for far too long.
It has been an amazing 2 years, and I’ve been lucky to go on a few more of those “once in a lifetime” journeys. I have been blessed to share them with amazing people who have become my friends, encouraging, supporting, and teaching me. Each trip has been, well…mostly just awe-inspiring! I feel like a butterfly, that was stuck in a cocoon too long. Having emerged, I’ve been able to see, through a new lens, through different eyes. I’m thoroughly re-addicted.
All good, right? Well, YES! But, what seems to go hand in hand with having moved from the golden age of 35mm film into the digital one, I have managed to amass myself in no short order, TENS OF THOUSANDS of images . I’ve had a grand time taking them all, but to be frank, not every one ever deserves to ever see the light of day again.
Hence – comes the crux of deleting. It has been an overwhelming task for me to figure out how to weed through them. I am thankful I have found a few kind souls to lean on to start teaching me how, but it is no easy task for me.
I have been fascinated, even jealous, to watch fellow photographers, most recently in Alaska, manage to sort through a couple thousand (or more) photo day, and in under 20 minutes, have it narrowed down to a few dozen or less. Their secret? The RUTHLESS “DELETE” key. I’ve decided this evil (?) Delete key really is a metaphor for life.
Photographers diligently back up their prized photos on 2 or even 3 external hard drives each evening so as to preserve those spectacular keepers they’ve culled through. Then the camera’s memory cards are reformatted (ERASED!) so they are at the ready to capture the next morning’s shots. Yikes! What if all the hard drives fail? What if you lose all the photos? Oh the Heartache!
Wouldn’t losing all the photos be utter devastation after all the effort of having taken them? Well, what about then deliberately DELETING them? Does deleting those “not quite so perfect” photos take away from our experience, or does it refine it and make the saved images all that more sweet?
Photos hold our memories, our record of our journeys. When natural disasters strike, it seems it’s the photos folks grab first, or wish they had, and miss the most when they’re gone. Most everything else is replaceable.
This past summer, my mother moved out of the house she’d lived in for nearly 40 years. This was the house my brother and I spent the majority of our childhoods in. She and I had so many discussions on what to save, what to throw out. Sorting through a lifetime of possessions is very overwhelming, but aren’t there great benefits in purging? There are entire TV shows now dedicated to this very topic.
I’ve learned so much, over the past handful of years particularly, about life’s challenges. So what was my advice to her on her move? Only take with you what is essential. What fulfills you. What sustains you. What will continue to enrich your life moving forward. Leave behind, with gratitude, that which no longer serves you. Create empty space, mentally and physically, for new growth, new adventures, new challenges. To make room for the new, you have to clean out the old. I thought I was being so smart. (Of course, I too have dusty boxes in the basement that are in great need of attention and purging.)
I was convinced that without “cleaning house” of the old clutter it left little room for allowing life to evolve. And yet, I can’t seem to delete the multitude of blurry, out of focus, not quite right digital photos that I think might yet have a purpose, someday, somehow. I am now seeing the duplicity of my thinking. I am a digital photo hoarder! Letting go, on a number of levels, seems to be a continuing life challenge for me as well.
Isn’t the purging of digital media, just as important? It is a freeing of the mind, from being bogged down. Deleting allows for new creativity and inspiration to flow in. Artists through the ages have reused canvases, repainting over those they thought didn’t make the grade.
I’ve been told that if you manage to end up with a handful of keepers at the end of the day – it was a grand success. There’s no sense moping about the multitude of the “what it could’ve/should’ve been” photos. Use these “less than ideal” photos as a learning tool in what to do different the next time. Keep the best ones, move on, take more photos. Sounds easy, right? I’m not quite there yet, but I’m game to work on it.
How do I choose to delete something one person may see as trash but someone else may see as art? Do the photos, in and of themselves, define or enrich our experiences?
It’s certainly a reminder, to relish in the passion and joy of the taking of the photos. Remembering to be present, to really sit in the moment, wherever you are on the planet, camera in hand or not, that’s the real trick. To appreciate and have gratitude in the joy and beauty this world has to offer us every day. We are all works in progress, letting go, moving on, moving forward, searching.
Take the photos, share them, sell them if you’re lucky, but don’t forget to have fun. The Passion and joy in the taking of the photos will be reflected in the photos themselves. It is the personal journey that matters most, wherever you are, and wherever you go.
Off The Rhumb Line 