Jared Richardson Photography

I thought this morning was going to turn out to be a dud.  My sister is in town for a conference, and I was shuttling her there for 7:45.  It would have been good timing for the sunrise as I was only a few minutes away from an interesting view point of the Edmonton Downtown.  With sunrise at 8:22 I would have to move quickly to be set up and ready to go.  It didn’t happen, the cloud cover over head didn’t do anything interesting and I was left sipping my coffee enjoying the sheer murky grey oppressive joy of the sky.

Well, since it was a Saturday morning and traffic was light, I thought that I’d just spend some time driving around, just to see if I could find anything notable that I could add to the list of places to check out later.  Since I was close to it, I checked out the Art Gallery of Alberta, which reopens tomorrow after going through an extensive remodelling done by Ledcor Construction.   The new fascia looks intriguing and I now have it on my list as a future location for some possible HDR photography.  

After that, I decided to continue driving around to see what I could see.  It was a good time, my camera didn’t make it out of the bag, but at the end of it all, I had a great scouting trip.  This is something that I would recommend doing, and will be doing more consistently in the future.  If you aren’t feeling inspired to shoot, head out anyway, and go take a drive and just look around you.  You’ll be happy you did.

Earlier today while at work, I was taking a thirty second “look out the window and not at the screen” break, and I started musing about what makes me interested in photography.  I posted the question on my Facebook Page and really do appreciate the replies that have been posted so far.  So here are some of the things that keep me interested in photography:

Interaction - Interaction is one of the main reasons why I am drawn to photography.  Whether I am reviewing photos, actively shooting, working on the website or just talking with others about photography, the topic fascinates me.  Interaction with other people while shooting or in solitude with nature, these are the things that keep the passion alive.

Originality/Individuality - Knowing that I can shoot the same subject as five other people at the same time and receive a photo that is completely different in look and feel fascinates me.  This is one of the reasons why I find photo walks to be so much fun.  The last vacation that Charlotte and I took, we were often shooting the same subject at the same time, and the variety of imagery is astounding.  In fact one of the main items for the vacation was to revisit and shoot a series of waterfalls that we had last been to several years previous.  Even though I’d say that the results were better this time around, there weren’t any shots that were duplicates to the one’s taken previously.  

Challenge - I have found that there is always something different to try or improve with photography.  Even upon reviewing my photos after a shoot, whether it be hours, months or years later, I find myself re-evaluating my images.  As with the waterfalls mentioned above, I was happy to get another attempt at capturing their beauty.  Perhaps the third time will be a charm, and we’ll have a little bit of sun the next time around.  The ability to capture a scene/subject at a particular moment in time is magical, and I think is under-rated sometimes.  You may never know when a snapshot will turn out to contain an extra meaning as I did a little while ago.  One of the reasons why I follow other photographers websites, podcasts, articles/blogs is to appreciate their art, and to be inspired for my own projects.  

“Gear” - One of the most exciting things for me is the gear, for those who know me well this won’t be a surprise.  ;-)  Enough said!

So there are just a few things that keep me interested in photography.  What are some of yours?  Feel free to leave a comment here under the post or on my Facebook Page.  

Chase the light!