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August 26, 2015

Fear of missing out

Compulsion to take on a project simply out of fear of falling out of the loop on the related news, trends, etc. is so common that this “fear of missing out” has its own abbreviation (FOMO). I think this is particularly relevant to photography.

While staying current in one’s niche and continually honing one’s skills is fundamentally important, there are definite advantages of breaking everyday patterns from time to time. For example, Kevin Kelly argues that travelling forces one to break the routine and keeps the mind agile. Likewise, Tara Brach, who recently discussed FOMO in her interview with Tim Ferriss, pointed out that taking sabbaticals helps us identify habits that are normally keeping us from being attuned to the constantly changing reality.

August 23, 2015August 23, 2015

Sweet tooth

Physical conditioning, and endurance in particular, is important for photographers. Recently, I came across an interesting discussion of the role of hydration plays in endurance. Basically, it is important to be hydrated, and more specifically, to have sufficient amount of electrolytes in the body, to avoid muscle cramps and exhaustion during physical exercise.

Having a sweet tooth may actually be beneficial from the hydration standpoint, because carbohydrates help retain water in the body. Not related to sugar per se, but I had been given advise by a kendo sempai while practicing in Kanazawa in the heat of a Japanese summer to eat more rice, bread, etc. to avoid dehydration during practice.

So, people who fight cravings for sweets by eliminating sugars from, may find themselves at the risk of dehydration. One counter-intuitive way of battling this effect is to increase the intake of salts. Which one of the two evils is the lesser one, is the question that remains open…

August 21, 2015

On humility

In education and philosophy, “intellectual humility” is a quality that allows people to stop self-promoting their intellectual efforts and instead let their results (acquired knowledge, skills, etc.) speak for themselves. Perhaps, this concept could be expanded to any kind of effort, not necessarily an intellectual one, to help define humility in general.

For example, in art, and in particular, in photography one does not need to brag about the cost of equipment or the number of hours spent mastering the craft. Instead, we can just let the pictures stand on their own. With images, this should be particularly easy to do, since their transcend languages, cultures, and even time, because people are genetically programmed to heavily depend on visual input for much of the incoming information and emotional content.

August 17, 2015August 17, 2015

Rats!

Showing motion is a great way to add interest to any photo, and I particularly like when it is skillfully done in pet photography – dogs in mid-jump, for example. That is why our friends asked us to take care of a couple of pet rats when the owners were away, I thought it would be interesting to try capturing these little creatures in motion.

It turns out that rats move too much. They are extremely fast and unpredictable in their movements, and even if I could sometimes frame the photo, using a flash to stop the motion was not an option – it turns out that the rats are sensitive to all sorts of things.

Since motion was elusive, I resorted to trying to show the second best (or, arguably, the best) thing – emotion. In this case, the delight of my daughter at being able to play with the furry little creatures.

August 15, 2015

Lens for landscape photography: wide-angle or telephoto?

For me personally, a telephoto lens is easier to use for landscapes, because I like the perspective-compression effected also because I am used to picking out mini-compositions that I can crop out from the overall scenery by zooming in on them. I developed this skill because my first pro-level lens was Canon’s 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, which was far superior in quality to any other lens I had. Because of that, and despite its relatively large size and weight, I used to carry it around all the time. As a side note, I still think that it is, perhaps, the most versatile lens in Canon’s lineup.

Wide-angle lenses, in the right hands, can produce spectacular landscapes, but I find it more challenging to recognize a potentially striking photo. To practice this skill, I decided to put a 16-35mm f/2.8L on my camera for the first half of today’s hike in the East Sook park. I also wanted to practice taking photos of trees, which I find to be a very difficult subject. By the way, I find the following rule of thumb helpful when evaluating “interestingness” of a potential landscape: all other elements being equal, showing inclement weather, cliffs or mountains, shore lines and people makes the picture more interesting.

August 14, 2015August 14, 2015

Taking notes

It is well-known that taking notes while talking to someone is signalling to that person that you are paying attention to the conversation. However, the manner in which the notes are taken is important. Typing on a computer may seem intimidating or create an impression of distance between the conversation partners. On the other hand, writing in a notebook generally perceived very positively.

I often take pictures as a form of note-taking, particularly in museums or during tours of laboratories, etc. Perhaps, in these settings, the impression that I leave during the process of taking notes is less important, but in the spirit of being aware of what one looks like from the outside, it is good to be at least conscious about it. The note-taking process has other important aspects that not only streamlines the workflow, but also makes notes themselves more useful.

Phil Libin, the former CEO of Evernote, points out that it is crucial to process and catalogue the notes immediately after they have been taken, and to do it in the same geographical context. He is referring to the ability of various note-taking apps, Evernote in particular, to geo- and context-tag the notes, but I think this concept of processing and cataloguing the information soon after it has been acquired also applies to photography in general.

August 7, 2015August 7, 2015

Being a third-person shooter

Some computer games can be categorized as either a first-person or a third-person type. In a first-person game, the player sees the virtual world through the eyes of the character and is not aware of what the character him-/herself looks like. In a third-person game, the player looks at the environment over the character’s shoulder or from above, but in any case, the character is a part of the picture tat the player sees. In other words, when we play a third-person game, we are aware of what we look like in the virtual environment.

Phil Libin, the former CEO of Evernote, mentioned in an interview with Tim Ferriss that different people tend to go through life in either a first-person or a third-person mode. According to him, there are advantages and disadvantages to being aware of one’s own image. I think that even if self-awareness can be distracting from the point of view of pure experience, having the ability to invoke the third-person mode at will is a tremendously useful skill. Taking photography as an example, it is not only important for the photographer to know what image he/she projects to the client, the models, etc., but it is also crucial to make the models aware of what they look like through the lens, so that they can adjust the pose, the makeup, etc.

I wonder what Velázquez, who included himself in the already busy composition of “Las Meninas,” thought about self-awareness and the image he projected in the presence of his royal models…

Being a “third-person shooter” is different from being a slave to the opinion of others, against which there are many warnings, including Hugh MacLeod’s “Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity,” for example. It is important to be focussed on the task and the experience at hand, but it is also important to realize that the proverbial big picture includes ourselves in it.

August 6, 2015August 6, 2015

California dreaming

Too much of a good stuff could be not so good, if it is monotonous. We have been having a stretch of incredible warm summer weather in the Pacific North-West, and I overheard one local man saying to another: “I hope it won’t turn into California.”

Granted, these people were both runners, and training outdoors is much more comfortable in cooler weather. Still, I think that this attitude shows that it is important to have variety in whatever we experience, even if things seem to be pretty good at the moment. At the very least, variation would make us appreciate the “ups” more and help cope with future “downs” by putting them into perspective.

August 2, 2015August 2, 2015

Museums

In many museums around the world photography is allowed, provided that no flash or tripod is used. I suspect that both restrictions are made for the convenience of other visitors rather than to prevent photographers from taking high-quality photos. I find this totally acceptable, as it would be extremely tedious to catalogue the museum’s collection anyway. Instead, I think it makes sense to capture the experience of visiting the museum, and for this task, modern cameras with their excellent low-light performance are more than adequate.

During my visit to the Sforza castle in Milan, I did not even take my fastest lens, instead, I used Canon’s Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens on a 1D X body, which gave me ability to zoom in on details of particularly striking exhibits and to capture candid shots of other visitors. In Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, I used my iPhone to take photos of tourists enjoying some of the most striking works.

I often use my camera in museums purely as a note-taking tool. I take snapshots of the works of art themselves and of the side panels that provide reference information (in the hope that some day, I will actually make time to review these notes and perhaps even make some use of them).

July 30, 2015July 30, 2015

On diversification

Whether to specialize in a single subject, skill or activity (to “niche down,” in business terms) or to engage in various fields is a true dilemma, as there is no singe correct answer. Perhaps, niching down carries the higher probability of near-term success, while aiming to become a polymath promises more glory. I am not referring to glory in a conventional sense, or rather not only that, but generally a well-rounded and balanced personality and lifestyle, as well as the potential to eventually make a lasting contribution to whatever the field(s) of activity happen(s) to be (just think about Leonardo Da Vinci!)

I came across another appealing reason for diversifying one’s areas of interest in an interview with Stanley McChrystal, a retired 4-star US Army general. He mentioned that being genuinely interested in physical conditioning provided him with an area that was sufficiently separated from what he did professionally, so that even in the face of a crisis situation at work, he was able to think, “the workout today was excellent,” which provided a certain sense of stability.

I think that it is unreasonable to expect a constant rate of improvement at whatever we do, so it might be a good idea to cultivate multiple streams of activity, so that plateau periods in one would not negatively reflect on our overall perception of the situation.

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