GO WITH THE FLOW - DISCOVERING A PASSION FOR ABSTRACT LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
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Have you ever noticed that sometimes things work out better when you stop struggling and instead go with the flow? That's a sweeping statement - let me explain.
I was an early joiner on the mirrorless camera bandwagon. If truth be told though, I have struggled ever since to get the darn thing to reliably produce the sort of images that come easily to me with my more robust (and weighty) Nikon gear.
Now, before I go any further let me state that I have no doubt that the issue is not the camera… but rather the user. Plenty of other photographers are producing wonderful images using the very same mirrorless system that seems to trouble me.
My biggest issue has been focus. I can’t get an in focus image with the mirrorless to save my life. Well - that’s not entirely true - I have had a few - but most often they are happy accidents rather than planned. The majority of images I’ve taken with this new lightweight media darling are complete blurry messes. Bah!
One day as I was reviewing another collection of fuzzy missed shots I discovered one that I rather liked in spite of its lack of focus. And BOOM, it hit me. Since I seemed to be able to capture blurry shots with this camera so easily - why not explore that? If you can't beat them...
For some of you this will make no sense. I can hear you asking "why would you want to purposefully make out of focus images?" Well here's the thing - I’ve always been fascinated by abstract images and the camera as a tool to create them.
Many photographers might take to the soapbox and proclaim that abstract photos are just a way of “saving” a bad photo - which may be true in some cases - but when the intention is to make abstract images, blurry photos are not mistakes saved but rather art created. In fact the technique has a name ICM - intentional camera movement and there are plenty of photographers creating these sorts of images in a genre of art often referred to decades ago as pictorial and more recently as abstract or impressionist photography.
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Given that I have the tool in hand which I seem predisposed to create these sorts of images with… I thought I would give the genre a go. I have learned that creating abstract images intentionally is every bit as challenging as creating any other sort of image. But I am hooked and it's kindled a love for a camera that used to cause me grief!
Have you ever found that your photography took a turn for the better when you stopped struggling? Or have you ever turned a negative into a positive in your art? Maybe it's time to consider trying to go with the flow.
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