Resting Along the Way
September 27, 2005 * Maine
(click in the image for a larger version)
It's Tuesday and that means it's time for another of my occasional Time Machine Tuesday posts. For these entries I delve into the archives to find an image that is at least one year old, and usually, much older. It's a fun way to revisit photos I haven't seen in a awhile, and sometimes these glances back into the archives lead to creatively satisfying rediscoveries that come from seeing older work with new eyes.
This photograph was made in the Fall of 2005 on my very first trip to Maine to teach at the then Maine Photographic Workshops. On one of the days we explored the central Maine coast we made a trip to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse and while there I spotted this couple resting on the rocks and enjoying the fine view. It had always been a favorite shot from that trip, but I had not seen it in many years when I found it again a few months ago and decided that it was a fitting addition to A Measure of Longing. That photographic meditation had been inactive and nearly done for several years, but there were still a few ideas I wanted to address in it. This quiet scene just seemed to work well within the overall arc of the series, and the original image was photographed at a time when that was the primary series I was working on.
Creative seeing is not just about looking for new images through your camera's viewfinder, it's also about seeing the possibilities in photos you've already made, or ideas that have been with you for a while. Examining the paths you've already traveled can sometimes provide insights to where the path may lead next. Revisiting older images may not lead to making new prints of those images, or including them in a long term series, as was the case with this photo, but it may lead to a better understanding of what you were trying to achieve at that time, and suggest ideas for new paths to explore.
Since that first year teaching at the Maine Photographic Workshops (now the Maine Media Workshops) I've returned there nearly every year. I'm especially looking forward to this year because I am teaching a new course on a theme that is close to my heart: Creative Seeing: Refining Your Photographic Vision, September 7 – 13. One of the most satisfying things that I do is teaching and helping other photographers become better at making the images that are so central to their creative lives. That's what this course is all about. Click the link to learn more about this workshop. I hope to see you in Maine this Fall!
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