The need to learn photography moments.

I sometimes think I go out with a camera and try too hard to find a photograph to wow me. It happens most often when I merely have a fuzzy idea of what I want. Then, as I write that I think of the Ansel Adams quote, “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept”. Not every photography outing or session needs to render that show stopper image. At the same time, I need to actually put together a project list rather than keep them in my mind.

I don’t know if it is something many other photographers or artists do, but I am often easily distracted. Oh, look! A squirrel! It happens often with my creative photography ideas as well as in everyday life. It isn’t such a severe issue as to keep me from doing the things that really get done but it often gets in the way of projects.

I often discover that some of the photographs I like best are those with little setup or planning. They were finds of the moment.

On the other hand, I find many photographs that really grab my interest that was planned, set up, and shot with intent.

I need to learn to not put too much pressure on myself when I take out a camera, and if I go with the intent to walkabout to take photographs to look for things that wow me at the moment. To quote another of the great photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson, “There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment.” So maybe we should all look for that decisive moment, maybe consciously at first so that we can then recognize it without thinking.