Matt’s Photo Journal

Well, I’ve been taking a little break from photography (not that anyone cares because as far as I can see, no one is reading this blog)(not that I would blame them – these things are a supreme act of narcissism). It’s not that I’m not shooting at all, but I’m not focusing on it nearly as much.

For awhile there I was placing a bit too much attention to the craft (or rather, attempted craft) and frankly trying too hard when there just wasn’t much to shoot. The problem is if you’re not traveling, you’re usually treading over the same spots over and over again and often you’re doing so hoping some new inspiration will come along. When it doesn’t it can slowly eat at you.

I think the other thing that put me off was shooting some medium format Velvia (quite a bit really) and being disappointed with the results. It just didn’t look as good as I remember it (or frankly as good as my old slides!). Then again, I blew a ton of shots out of what I would call “digital laziness”. That is, you get used to not having to deal with 50 ASA and the shutter speeds that go with it.

So, I’m laying off a bit and waiting for inspiration to take me again. Already after about a month now I’m starting to get the itch again, so I think it’s a good thing.

The #1 trash I find, whether it’s walking the roads or back woods trails is:

Beer cans

When I was young my assumption was that a lot of beer drinkers were A.H.’s, but now that I’m older and am an avid beer drinker, I’m inclined to believe that a lot of beer drinkers are, well, A.H.’s.

Go figure.

Incidentally, the fact that they always seem to be (empty!) on the side of roads, is ultimately more concerning…

The reason I still live in NH is this:

Rustic Barn

The snow can be a pain in the backside, but it’s better than a lot of dead brown nothing.

I was looking through my 2008 photos today to create a “Favorites 2008 Gallery” on my SmugMug site, and while I’m happy with a lot of the people shots I’ve taken, there are depressingly few “art” or “still life” shots that really move me.

I love digital because it gets me out there, but without significant manipulation (and even then) you just don’t get photos with punch and saturation like say this:

Foliage and Moon

Of course today they would just assume I grafted in the moon, but I didn’t. It was just one of those special confluences.

Part of why I shoot the Fuji S5 (and Fujis in general – the S2 still shines color/saturation-wise) is because I feel they come the closest of every DSLR I’ve seen to film. For instance, I really like this one from this year:

Bad Kitty!

But in general the saturation doesn’t quite match Velvia which is what I live for. I suspect I will be shooting film again soon!

So, here I’m going to try to see if I can put together a photo journal. I don’t have much hope of this lasting because frankly with shooting RAW the time between the shoot and the post is pretty large, plus I just don’t get my act together in general.

Nonetheless, we’ll give it a try.

Here  incidentally is what I looked like, um, 20 years ago:

Me a long time ago

Ah, to be so thin today.