Stories

“The trouble with not having a goal is

that you can spend your life running up and down the field

and never score.”

— Bill Copeland

I love this quote.

I often use it in my photography presentations; I quote it whenever I can.

I also practice it.

I write down my annual goals and track them. When I started photography and was building my first website, I sat down and wrote down my Purpose (yes, with a capital P) and have frequently revisited what I wrote. When I am feeling particularly restless, writing my To-Do list calms me – it gives me a sense of control.

Yes, clearly I am in love with goals.

Which is why when, during our Iceland trip, I heard Vishnu say that he believed listing down his photography goals for the trip might make his vision narrower and lead him to miss opportunities, my first response was one of quiet skepticism and I tuned out.

Vishnu’s point, however, stayed with me.

Why do I prepare a list of target images?

Writing down the list of my target images doesn’t mean that I will create them. But having a target list makes it more likely that I might be able to notice an opportunity that critical few seconds early.

Suppose I have, in my target list, a close up image of the face of a polar bear entering into the frame. A bear is swimming in the water, heading towards a snow covered incline. I am ready with my 70-200 mm lens to capture the bear walking with its back towards us leaving behind footprints. However, that recollection of the goal to have a close up shot possibly made me realize that there was a very short stretch the bear might have to walk on before climbing the incline and I kept my 400 mm lens ready to create this image.

This was the image. Very different from my usual approach and more importantly, an image I like a lot. There is a softness it tells me about the bear ( the raised paw, the fur brushing the snow) that I like.

I looked at some of the goals I had written down for my trips over the years. If I then look at the crop of images that I have returned with, the overlap of my favorite images with my target list is usually a small one. Which means that I wasn’t stuck at waiting for my target shots but instead have been identifying opportunities as and when they came up.

As far as I can tell, I have not missed any opportunities just because I had a target list.

(But then, will I ever know?)

What struck me in my lists, however, was what I was not looking for.

As I went over my target lists, I realized that my lists contained no surprises.

It would mostly be the usual list of images that I would naturally go for. I would have gone for most of those images even if I didn’t have a list, since those are my go-to shots. I don’t have to write down – a wide angle shot of a polar bear on land with the mountains in the back.  Forget me, even my friends know that such an image is intrinsically an image that I will create.

What value, then, did my lists add?

Are my lists, habits disguised as ambition?

I took the images in my list when the opportunity came up. I also created completely different images because I saw those opportunities too. So, while my lists might not have added much value, they didn’t hold me back either.

But, something kept nagging me. I continued to potter around my thoughts.

I want my images to say something beyond just recording what is in front of me.

A single image may not tell the complete story, but it necessarily should convey an emotion, a feeling. It should make a viewer pause and stay with the image, searching for something.

I remembered reading a line that said something like, you don’t go looking for an image, an image comes to you.

What I should be looking for in the field is not an opportunity but clarity about the emotion I want to capture. That clarity could help me use even simple, straightforward incidents differently.

Minor White called the ideal state of mind while photographing as “receptive blankness”. He had written in one of his essays:

“The state of mind of a photographer while creating is a blank…

For those who would equate “blank” with a kind of static emptiness,

I must explain that this is a special kind of blank.  

It is a very active state of mind really, a very receptive state of mind,

 ready at an instant to grasp an image,

yet with no image pre-formed in it at any time.”

I thought of some of the occasions where I created an image just because I was aware of the mood I felt at the scene which I wanted to convey.

While in Mara last year, I wanted to convey the feeling of vastness and as a cheetah was moving through the mist, I felt that there was a feeling of mystery. The image I composed was an unusual one for me. The dew on the grass and the shadows make it look ghostly and then you see the distinctive figure of the cheetah scanning.

Once in Amboseli, we were scurrying away from a dust storm that seemed intent on chasing us. I saw a couple of wildebeest plodding in the distance and sensed an opportunity and insisted that we stop and explore that.

That image is one of my more dramatic ones, contrasting the fury of the approaching storm and the placid calm of the wildebeest.

But, does having a target list conflict with being in the state of receptive blankness?

I might have in my list : a slow shutter image of any subject. That’s a goal, a reminder to try slow shutter speed when an opportunity comes up. But, it might be better if I am seeing a wildebeest herd as they migrate and feel that, that manic haste might look good if captured in slow shutter speed. It’s the scene, the moment that is dictating me what to do.

Why not try going with no plans, no lists, just with an empty yet alert and receptivemind, open to a greater level of self-awareness, an awareness about what I am feeling and what I want to capture?

It’s going against my nature, but it will be fun to step into that uncomfortable territory and see what emerges.

*****

Here are a few images from the past that I am fond of with a backgrounder on what helped me to create them.

The image in my list was the expected one.

A super wide angle one of the rhino with its formidable horn looking distorted because of the close range.

But when I saw this pair amble across the sparsely wooded area, it had a quiet, calm feel to it

and I created this image, ensuring that my post processing also reflected that emotion.

The giraffe throws up such a distinctive swirl of water when it finishes its drink.

This again, was an image that I composed on the spur of the moment

where I decided to slow down my shutter speed

in the hope of catching the spray in its unique form along with its reflection.

I am really fond of this image.

In Hokkaido, especially with the cranes I was feeling a huge sense of peace.

The quiet beauty of the place was something very unique and distinct.

This image, or this approach was not in any list of mine.

I was in a lovely state of flow, calmly creating frames.

I wish I could recreate that feeling.

A pride of lions on the prowl.

A nervous herd of wildebeest along with some zebras. 

I felt that focusing on the legs alone would be an interesting way to capture the panic.

Watching the tens and thousands of birds flying in the skies is a magical experience.

I tried slow shutter, regular shutter and multiple ways to capture the sheer number of birds.

This one, keeping the European shag as the anchor alone worked for me.