Ok, so I am sitting on the plane, which is sitting on the runway at Philly International Airport. Just told that there are more than fifteen planes in front of us, so take off will be delayed. Funny how even with the forty-minute delay we will still arrive on time.
Well, I have been avoiding flying for over three years now and with good reason … I truly dislike everything about the entire experience and only do it when there isn’t a reasonable alternative. Definitely not the same as it was in the Eighties when I was flying around world for my day job. I think anyone that says they enjoy it now has some real soul searching to do.
But now I couldn’t avoid flying as a family emergency came up from out of nowhere and so here I was sitting on the tarmac. It did give me an opportunity to do something that I often do when I have some spare time … that is to think about photography. It can really be about anything related to it and it sure beats thinking about things that are not interesting or depress you. Most importantly it helps you to keep your head in the game and contributes to living a photographic life.
Right, so the plane has finally taken off and I am still thinking, and in fact I have decided to write this entry, and think of some ideas for several others.
Well, I can’t be making pictures, but I can think, and in this case express some of my thoughts … and before I know it a couple of hours will have passed and I will be landing. The time will go by much faster and it will be a much more pleasant experience!
Often times I think about what and where I would like to photograph and what it would feel like to be doing it. I even think about the pictures I would be making. Some of them look like they are keepers! So now I am thinking about some plans I want to make for photographing near where I live in Bucks County and how I want to turn this into a photographic project.
I think it is a good idea to have a project, as long as it doesn’t stop you from thinking about other spontaneous and ad hoc opportunities. A project can keep you focused and enable you to produce something that has a coherent theme to it. But most importantly it can incentivize you to keep making pictures. In my case I want to document the diversity that exists in Bucks County, from it urban environments to its small towns and rural areas. I see it in some ways as a microcosm of America located in a relatively compact geographic area. I’m lucky to live in the middle of it! I suspect it will take some time to do this but that isn’t a bad thing either. The beauty of this is that I am focused on something that I am interested in and I believe is doable.
Much of the project will be conducted in a spontaneous fashion, but other parts will be based on research that I have been conducting. I think the research part is pretty important as you get to discover some really interesting information that will hopefully stoke the creative juices. You never know what you are going to find when you go to the library or the local Information Center. I learned that in 1934, one of my favorite photographers, Aaron Siskind, was commissioned to document Bucks County’s old homes and surrounding environs. In 1974, the Bucks County Historical Society published a book containing his work. Buck County, Photographs of Early Architecture is pretty obscure, but I was able to find a used copy on the Internet. So doing my research had an unexpected and happy benefit; it sits on my bookshelf and is an important and sentimental part of my photographic library.
So I encourage you to plan a meaningful project and of course take the steps necessary to do it. But I also encourage you to take advantage of the idle moments you have and use them to think about what you love about photography and what you want to do. That is what I have been doing on this dreadful flight and I have some new ideas about my project that I can’t wait to make happen when I return. Make sure you have something with you, like the notebook I carry, so you can capture important ideas that may come up … or just enjoy the moment. It sure beats staring at the top of the head in the airline seat in front of you!
Oh, I have to go now… we’re about ready to land!
