By 2012, with a full-frame camera, I finally felt like I could capture digital images that could compare to those taken by any other photographer. I became more intentional. I now had a quality Nikon camera with a couple of Nikkor lenses, and I set out to make photos that would justify my indulgence. I started to work at creating photos, rather than simply taking the opportunities that presented themselves.
As I paid more attention to what I was doing, I dredged up some of the old knowledge that I had put on hold during the family years. In the photo of the gamelan player during the writers’ festival in Ubud, Indonesia, I consciously set out to focus on the man’s eyes, and I framed it to include out-of-focus faces with instruments in the background.
I spent over an hour in Albany photographing the HMB Endeavour for the image below, and then I spent hours and hours trying to process it to my satisfaction. The worked version is a blend of multiple photos with different exposures, along with a bit of digital removal of distracting elements (disclosure, remember?). I worked hard to solve the problem of brilliant floodlights on the ship and faint stars in the night sky.
I’m still not quite satisfied with it, but the version here is far better than any of the individual images that went into it. It shows the Southern Cross without too much movement in the stars. Most of the details of the rigging hold up, despite a brisk wind.
In January 2012, I visited the Denmark Markets and took some photos, including one of a street performer using glass orbs. When I returned home and processed the images, I started to imagine more possibilities. On the next Denmark Market day, two weeks later, I returned and sought out the performer, who cooperated with my idea for the photo below. It’s upside down, of course, but that was my intention on my return visit. I wanted his face and the setting to be in focus within the orb, and the real world upside down and out of focus in the background.
I like the way this photo plays with your expectations. It challenges you to look more closely and put in some work to gain understanding. It’s a satisfying outcome of the intentionality I developed from this time.