Earl Moore Photography
Thrown a curve


My previous post regarding a goal of more consistency in photography this year and the resulting insightful comments (thank you all) has contributed to additional thoughts on this general subject.

How often have you set goals or resolutions for yourself , then begin working to make them happen when suddenly things don’t go as you’d planned — a major circumstance in your life changes which makes the old goal no longer a priority, you underestimate the time and resources it’s going to take and there’s just not enough hours in the day, or you lose momentum and fall behind and soon you can’t find the motivation to continue. Some of these are internal and within your control but some may be external where you have no control. Even positive events in life can cause a reconsideration of plans, priorities and goals. I wish I had a dollar for every goal or resolution of mine that went off track. Life has a way of throwing you curves (“life is like a box of chocolates” ~ Forrest Gump – 1994) or perhaps it’s simply things are forever changing and therefore unpredictable, inconsistent.

We can view these “curves” as obstructions to progress or as unplanned opportunities and the only thing I often find determining my choice of those two viewpoints is my own expectations.   

“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.” ~ Albert Einstein

I’ll be the first to admit I struggle with change, just ask my wife, but I don’t doubt the importance of being able to do so effectively. Is there a conflict between change and consistency? In my mind, no. I believe you can be consistent on many levels with change still being a part of your life or your photography — being consistent while embracing change.

In driving a sports car, I seek out highways with curves because they’re exciting, each unique and they grab my attention to let me experience the moment — yet there are driving rules to be practiced consistently insuring a balance of both exciting and safe. I’d like to approach life and in turn photography that same way this year.

In the photo above, I couldn’t pass up the curves of one of the drainage canals running through the lower sections of the Salisbury National Cemetery. A bonus was the reflections of sky and tree found in the water under the shade just before the small bridge. These canal curves, as well as the curved paths and roadways, are in contrast but in many ways complimentary to the ridged design and straight placement of the graves and headstones.


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Eric Jeschke
12 years ago

A great image, Earl. I like how the eye follows the line of the canal to the bottom, then back up to the bridge, whereupon the beautiful diagonal of the tree shadow comes into play. Very nice lines, tones and composition!

Monte Stevens
12 years ago

They say the cells of our body die and regenerate others on a continuous basis. I can also attest that my life is inconsistent. I go in spurts with eating well, exercising, prayer and meditation, writing, reading, etc. For me the curves life offers have been seen as unwanted and at other times embraced. I can relate with your sports car analogy because when I rode the motorcycle I loved the curves of mountain roads but I had to be consistent in my riding or I’d find myself in the ditch. I like the Einstein quote. I look forward to seeing what 2012 brings you.

Colin Griffiths
12 years ago

I’ve struggled with my photographic projects over the years, especially when they haven’t gone to plan. But I’ve realised that the goals I was setting myself actually stifled my creativity rather than boosted it. My wife kept telling me “you are being too hard on yourself!”

Over the last couple of years I’ve given my projects permission to bend as I travel along with them and I don’t try to control the outcome as I did before. Now, if a project I’m working on “takes a curve”, I just go with it and doing that often serves to excite my creative juices and keep me motivated even more. I’ve just learned to measure my photographic productivity using a different set of metrics than I used to do. It was hard for me as a professional engineer, precise thinking etc, to adopt a seemingly less rigid approach in my personal endeavours, but other life experiences have been crucial in giving me the skills to do this. Today, I am a strong believer in our ability to retrain our minds, after all our behavioral patterns were all learnt at some stage of our lives or other. You are are on exactly the right track with your comments about consistency. For example, much modern thinking revolving around sports psychology deals with exactly that sort of point; that we should recognise what is outside of our control and only spend our energies dealing with what we CAN control.

Paul
12 years ago

Great post, Earl. Yes, I’ve been on that road many times. Projects come and go. Some of them get started, others never do, and a few of them even get to the completion stage. I try not to worry about it, though. It’s all in good fun. You are correct, we never know what life has in store for us around the bend, for sure, it will be a change. :)

I’m not sure what it means, exactly, to be consistent in one’s photography. After all, it is a creative thing. Consistency in taking photos, style, subject, day of the week, camera? I’m curious about the particular aspect that you are talking about.

Paul
12 years ago
Reply to  Earl

Thanks for the detailed reply. When you mentioned this, I rather pointed the question at myself, because it was such a good question and wondered what it meant to me. So, I was curious as to what it meant to you to be consistent. I’ve been thinking that I’ve been all over the place with subject matter and have not been as patient and as choosy as I think that I can, but then again, perhaps I’m alright with that. It’s good food for thought, a great post.

Ken Bello
12 years ago

I love the idea of taking on projects but i don’t care to formalize them. I prefer to start with a general idea and refine it along the way. This approach takes into consideration the factors that are out of our control (as you mentioned) as well as those that we can exhibit control. In any case, I don’t fret when things don’t go as planned but rather “reformulate”.
I like this image very much. Is this image and the one from the last post the type of “consistency” you mentioned?

yz
yz
12 years ago

beautiful framing and i love that tree shadow in the middle

Used Trucks
Used Trucks
12 years ago

Earl,

Another beautiful bit of photography. Regarding the goals: I can’t remember which general said this, “No battle plans survives the first encounter with the enemy.” But it’s so true – in business, in personal life and in any plan we attempt to execute. We must adapt. Always.

John Strong - Visual Notebook

Virtually everything I shoot, whether it’s for an existing project or not, I look at for a potential project – I love the idea of photographic series. Unfortunately, like your photo, life indeed throws us curves. Goals and projects need to be flexible. Goal sounds to hard and fast to me so I changed it to plans, as in, “plans change”, so now I’m thinking in those terms.

This is an excellent photo. As Eric pointed out, your eye follows the line of the canal up to the top of the photo and you see the tree shadows, the little bridge, and then, startlingly, the cemetary markers. Serenity into Eternity. Excellent!

Mark
12 years ago

Nice post Earl. I am also in the crowd of many projects started, few completed, many abandoned. I am not too proud of that point. I tend to be a procrastinator at times. No doubt we need to be flexible. Life has a way of rearranging priorities for us.

I like the sense of place having the headstones at the top provides in this image Earl. I also cropped this on my screen just below the cross bridge to see it in a more abstract way. I like it that way also, and probably is just my own personal bias for abstracts coming through.

Martina Egli
12 years ago

That’s a fabulous image. I like how the canal lead the eye into the landscape and the shadows of the trees add great drama to the composition. I like the fact that you can only see the trunks and a few headstones, everythng else is left to interpretation.