Ya, I went back to the pier. First off, it’s really f%$%$%$ hot here. It’s almost October and it’s still over 90. We don’t have air conditioning. So my house is like a sweat lodge, and yes, I’ve actually been in a real sweat lodge. That is another story. Even my wife looks at me and says “Ya, shooting in Newport, not exactly riveting stuff.” But, it’s here. It’s where my feet were. So I tried.
You can’t believe how many people are making pictures, or video. Well, of course you can. You might be making pictures or shooting video as you read this lame post. Nothing should surprise me. It’s such a strange experience for me to shoot pictures now. So different from pre-2010. I feel like everything is completely and utterly different. Starting with the world.
What’s odd is that with all the cameras around I feel there is more suspicion today than ever before. You can have a guy with a mobile phone standing in the middle of the pier shooting video, and if your hands touch your camera you get “Hey, don’t take pictures of me.” It’s insane. All of it. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and it started happening back in the early 2000’s when anyone you snapped was suddenly media savvy beyond their years, EVEN IF YOU WEREN’T THE MEDIA. Didn’t matter. The assumption was you were getting famous, or rich, off their image. One of the reasons why I no longer work in this game.
But, what outweighs the insanity and paranoia is the nature around me. The sun, the sand, the kids in the water and the changes of one day to the next. It swallows the trivial, humanistic nonsense and coats it all in darkness. Take that. Go away. Come again another day. And we do.
Still learning my little camera. What I like, don’t like. What works, what doesn’t. How cool do I look with it around my neck? Should I tape it up? Should I scrape it on the barnacles on the pier to make it look aged? KIDDING. Can I wear a Speedo and flip flops and still look cool. Wait, no, that was a dream I had. Sorry.
Comments 2
I believe you can shoot good stuff anywhere at any time. Doesn’t matter if it’s been done to death.
But you’ve got to be honest and you’ve got to believe in something and you’ve got to have a point of view. An idea.
Same as when you shoot anywhere. You can go to the middle of Africa to photograph the amazing thing no white man ever saw and if you’re not honest, you don’t believe, you have no point of view, the pictures will be crap.
Or you can shoot ice cream cones at the local dairy queen and if you DO all those things the pictures will be great.
You taught me this!
Author
Andrew,
I said that! I sound smart! Connection. Ah yes. That mistress is so hard to pin down. We don’t need new venues, we need new eyes. (Thoreau)