Losing sight of the shore.
Andre Gide was a French writer, and humanist who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1947. I was recently reading an article on him and one of his quotes really hit home with me and the way I approach teaching both online with the BPSOP, and in my personal workshops I conduct around the planet.
Specifically, a conversation or conversations I recently had with two of my students (over a period of four weeks) who both live and die by whatever the ‘powers that be’ say at their camera club meetings and competitions; after all, who knows better than the newly elected officers? Am I right?
Btw, if I had to pick one subject that I talk about the most is the question whether camera clubs, online information, or just friends tell you what to do and what not to do. I certainly don’t think what I profess is the Gospel according to Joe, but I will tell you that most of the material you read on the information highway is just not in your best interest; sometimes you just have to follow the roads less traveled.
This is where the quote comes in. Gide once said, “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
To me, taking chances and making mistakes in the process is the best way to take your photography what I commonly refer to as “up a notch”. I’m not implying that you should quit going to your local camera club meetings. After all, it’s a great place to eat free cookies, nibble on celery and carrot sticks, drink Perrier sparkling water, or perhaps diet coke is your thing.
I’m not profiling here because I have seen it up close and personal. I have been asked to judge several local camera club annual competitions and I always had a hard time being asked to judge the title of the photograph and even how it was matted in my final decisions whether to accept a piece into the show or worse…to give it a blue ribbon; I finally started turning down the honor.
The last camera club’s annual show I judged, I had set out a stack of self addressed post cards for people to take that talked about my online class and my workshops. Out of the entire club of a hundred plus people, only one woman picked one up.
I found out that she was the one that had placed first in three categories and second in the third. After seeing my presenation she decided that she wanted to learn more about seeing differently and growing more as a photographer.
If you feel that you’re not going anywhere as far as your photography is concerned, then maybe it’s time to discover new oceans; I like to call it “coloring outsides the lines”. If it means going out shooting by yourself, then just do it! One thing will be certain, you’ll be looking ahead and not behind you…where everyone else will be.
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
