A Different Kind of FOMO

I chuckle when I stop to skim through previous posts from years ago that I barely remember and find themes and topics that I forget I’ve written. I’m sure that if some SEO, “digital strategist,” or PR person were ever to happen upon this haphazard collection, it would cause an upturn of the nose, potentially a sniff, followed by “this is why you need me.”

Fortunately, this space isn’t meant to be some perfectly polished and curated work. It’s a constant work in progress and push towards greater skill. AKA, I can do whatever the hell I want and however the hell I want. It’s a very liberating feeling.

Tangential thought aside, it is funny to me when I find those common themes, even years later. I’ve written about FOMO before, back in 2016, but today I’m thinking about it in a slightly different context. I find that during those amazing probably-once-in-a-lifetime travel moments, I get the FOMO bad. Instead of taking the time to apply some technical knowledge or think critically about composition, I snap the lazy shot. It’s only in post that I realize how silly that is when those shots aren’t very interesting. They’re kind of cool, but doesn’t make you feel anything or react in any kind of way.

I clearly love to travel and go to new places, which means plenty of new experiences, some of which I do want to document and look back to say “hey remember when x happened?" But, it’s hard when that mixes with when I’m trying to actually push to the kind of photography that makes you feel something. I find it hard to shoot mundane subjects because they’re kind of boring and everyday by definition, but that’s also where I can focus 100% on the technical aspects and consider how the light falls on something boring AF. I don’t get caught up in the moment of sensory overload in an amazing new place and experience.

That’s a hard temptation to resist though - it’s not exactly fun to do technical drills, but it’s probably something I need to do more of to really push to the next level. I’ve gotten away largely with “good enough” or “lucky enough,” for the past 850 hours and almost 7 years… it’s definitely time to uplevel my progress with some deliberate practice.

f/8 @ 1/500 sec - this is one that if I could redo, I would have at minimum, opened the aperture up and cranked up the speed to remove the distraction in the background. Light was tough since it was pretty harsh.

Generally still love this shot, but it would have been interesting to line up his blue eye with the sunbeam streaking through.

Active Shooting Time: already counted
Review Time: 1
Hours To Date: 850

Instagram: It's a Love and Hate Relationship

I post regularly on Instagram.  Definitely more often than I post here.  I also spend a lot of those odd minutes in the day (while in lines... waiting for reports to load...) browsing the feed and checking out new posts.  In the last few years, I've come across several recurring shots and styles that I both love and hate that seem to be especially popular on Instagram, but not other photo sharing collections.

I'm sure all of you have seen all these too because they're such canned tropes now that everyone with a smart phone wants to recreate these shots themselves.  It makes me cringe when I see mass-replicated shots because I want to see something new!  Something that makes me think and feel differently about a scene.  It's the part of photography that's really art to me. 

At least this was actually a candid photo...

Girl with Back Turned to Camera, suggesting a thoughtful moment as the solo adventurer
Love: generally, these shots are well-composed and can give a sense of scale or add the emotion of the moment to the capture.

Hate: it's so well-composed, it doesn't seem like a real, authentic moment you would have as a solo wanderer.  You'd only be able to get the damn shot of yourself by yourself by setting up a tripod and using a remote or timer, which means hauling more gear with you.  I'd also never turn my back on that much equipment for a shot, especially not in a public touristy place.

Alternatively, you could get this shot by having someone else take the photo for you... but if that's true, you're not exactly alone, are you?  

Another variation on this is the Girl Leading Guy By Hand Through Streets.  So popular and trite, it's painful. The very first shot I saw was interesting and now it just seems played out.
 

Supersaturation to the Max!
Love: My preferred style is vibrant and bold colors or light.  I'm not a fan of the fade-y look.  I love photos that convey a story with some strong emotion to make you feel something and get you straight into the scene.  I also appreciate the artistic quality of pushing color or light beyond exactly what your eye sees on occasion.  I'm not one of those anti-editing purists, but there's a line for me between fine art and just garishness. 

Hate: All the time with every shot = Too. Fake. It goes back to that authenticity thing.  I've seen images where the colors have been pushed beyond reality to a place of Picasso-esque art, I guess?  I'm guilty of this too - I tend to oversaturate in post and come back later and temper it once I've had some time interacting with reality.
 

Drones or GTFO
Love: So cool to get another perspective on a place that only the birds and people in helicopters get.  Definitely ticks the box of seeing something in a new way.  Totally an amazing way to see the world from the comfort of your couch.

Hate: Definitely a "hate us 'cause you ain't us" situation here.  I'm green with envy.  I don't have a drone and even if I did, I don't think I could fly it reliably without it crashing horrifically and losing all the gear on-board.  I also suffer from what I call the "if you give a mouse a cookie" problem where if I got a drone, then I'd need a camera.  Then I'd need some filters.  Then I'd also need a live monitor so I could compose properly... and so on and so forth. 

All in all, I still love Insta for those otherwise boring minutes waiting for other things to happen.  It is an easy community to browse and engage with and there are some awesome photographers there who will share their techniques and gear for capturing amazing shots.

Active Shooting Time: 0
Time Spent on Instagram In Preparation for This Post: 1.5
Hours To Date: 645
 

Cameras Aren't Eyes

One of my early frustrations was figuring this out - that cameras aren't great at replicating the exquisite details the human eyes take in and transfer to the brain for final picture stitching.

And yet, sometimes you can get the composition just right. Noisy as hell, but this is a close representation of the sunset reflection I actually saw off the display of my DSLR.

Can't wait to head out with my new upgraded kit too! 

Active Shooting Time: 15 min
Review Time: 15 min
Hours To Date: 369.5