Years ago I was a store manager for a well know electronics chain. We had all kinds of items which included TVs. In order to demo our wares, we used a couple of videos, one of which was called "Beyond the Minds Eye". I just checked and you can still get the video along with the many sequels online. These were CGI stuff and was revolutionary for the year (1990). Yes we even had indoor plumbing back then. If you haven't watched it or clips like it (some do appear on PBS from time to time) you ought to google it and watch.
During that same era in my life I also watched and laughed at the comedian Gallagher. He did a skit once about looking a thing with "new eyes". He talked about watching babies looking at things for the first time and seeing their reactions. Now maybe your ahead of me on this one but if not I want to take some time to talk (actually type) about photography and how it is a changin' at least as I see it in my minds eye.
I was watching something on one of the news channels a few days ago and took note of the number of people that were taking pictures with just about every kind of device you can imagine. You can't get a cell phone now a days without a camera on it. They even have some with two cameras, one for the front and one for the back. Almost everyone has a camera and thinks themselves as being a good photographer. But are they really? Sure they can take good pictures but so what. Anymore the technology has progressed so that just about all you have to do is point and shoot. But do they make any money off of them? If I don't watch it I could get on a soap box.
The true is that it's just not good enough to take a clear and properly exposed picture anymore. That is no longer a trick that only the pro's can do. No, I think that a pro photographer has to view things from a new perspective with "new eyes". We must see things that others do not see and go where other don't go and use our "minds eye" to be set apart from the millions of others who take pictures with their point and shoot devices. Remember the acronym WWATT and what I said it stood for, "What Would A Tourist Take"? Well here's another saying that might change how we see photography; "If it was easy, everyone would do it". Well, you say that everyone is doing it and that's just the point. Maybe, it's not that technology has made it possible for everyone to be the professional photographer, maybe we as professional photographers have gotten lazy. We suddenly have found that the we can't take pictures of just anything and expect them to be exchanged for the green stuff as easy as they use to be. Maybe we as professional photographers have forgotten why we take pictures for in the first place. Technology has forgotten about we the pro's. It's we the pro's or at least many of us who have chosen not to keep up with the technology well because it's just not that easy to do. But then again if being a pro was easy.......well you get the picture (no pun intended).
I mentioned in my last post that I had been challenged by numerous questions recently and in part, this post is a result of some of those questions. A challenge to see things with "new eyes" has been given me, to see things not as we see them every day, but with the "minds eye". The Good Book even suggest that we should "see thing that are not as though they were" in the book of Romans. That takes faith and vision, something that, in my opinion, has taken a holiday for most of us, cause it's just so dare easy to fall short and fail. So we just keep pushing to make what we have always done in the past work, continue doing the same old thing time and time again because it has work some in the past and besides it's comfortable in doing what we have always done even when it goes bad. What's the definition of insanity?
Let's face it! Ever since the microwave we've all gotten to the point where we want everything cheap, easy, and fast. We have all these wonder devices to make our world easy, even put man on the moon. Life should be easy. Everything should work right the first time and easy to boot not to mention profitable. Does the words "Pipe Dream" come into play here? As technology increase so does the degree of difficulty in all walks of life. The degree of competition has reached a level in all walks of life where we eat our own to get an inch ahead. Yes, I would like to go out and take a couple of pictures of a bird or two and sell them for a lot of bucks everyday. Flying pigs seem to be flashing in my head.
The "minds eye" can show us things that we have overlooked for years. Looking at things with "new eyes" will reveal what has been hiding if plain view, right in front of our nose, but haven't see because we can't get past our nose. We see things as not reachable or impossible while there are those who reach the unreachable and do the impossible everyday! It's that old bumble bee thing, where the bumble bee can't fly because it's wings are to small for the mass of it body. I guess no one has told the bumble bee yet or better yet when told the bee refused to believe it and flies anyway! It's how you see things with your minds eye that effect your life. That includes how it effects your photography efforts. Put on those new eye and open your minds eye to a whole new world that is hiding right in front of you and then make the world a better place by sharing what your minds eye captures through the lens of your camera!
That's all for today guys and gals. Have a great day everyone!
Richard
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