A great lesson on perspective

I just read this blog and feel that I should pass it on … sorry if you already got it.

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Let me say right off the bat that this is a simple rant.You’ve been warned. I hope you’ll stick around, read this and pass this message on the next time you hear a photographer complaining about their gear – or their lack of it.

I am constantly amazed by some of the stuff I read online. People complain about everything. They’re mad because they have to shoot with last year’s camera. They feel offended because they didn’t win the last photo contest. They’re irate that they had to wait in line 10 minutes at the camera store to buy a lens.

These are all first world problems people. The next time you feel like complaining about stuff like this, try taking a look around you.

The people in the Gulf of Mexico have just had their lives turned upside down by the BP oil spill. People are losing everything. Wildlife is perishing.

Two weeks ago in Arkansas, dozens were hurt or killed in a flash flood that took infants downstream screaming for their mothers.

In third-world countries around the globe, mothers worry about how they will feed their starving children.

Yet we complain about not having enough money for the 1.2 lens and settling for the 1.8 lens instead!

Perspective – it has a special meaning in photography. Why can’t we apply the proper perspective to our “problems?”

I’m using “WE” here because I too have complained about small things. As I grow older and face new challenges associated with my circumstances, I learn more and more to be thankful for what I can do. I spend less time worrying about what I can’t do.

So my charge to all who read this is simple. Why not focus (pun intended) on what you do have? Why not focus on the opportunities that are within your grasp. Instead of being mad that the guy next to you is eating steak while you eat hamburger, remember that there are many who’d love the hamburger.

If you waste time complaining about what you don’t have, I’ll almost bet my bottom dollar that you’re not making the most out of what you do have.

Go out and photograph with the gear you have today AS IF it were the best gear around. Go photograph the local park AS IF it were Yosemite. Change your mindset and I’m betting you’ll change your results. For the better that is.

Scott Bourne, July 7, 2010

Portraits of Patrik

Shortly after I moved to my new studio I realized that I lived very close to this guy I had heard about so much … I decided to call him and have a coffee.

7 months later and he has become a great friend and a wise sounding board.  These images were taken at my studio one sunny afternoon while we talked photography and Patrick discovered the wild things you can do with a mirror.

Heart of Glass

Marseilles, la vieille ville

These Images are from Marseilles, France.  Le Panier is the only area of town that survived WWII.  The building tightly built together, narrow streets and the landscape of “Provence”.  Marseilles, la vieille ville is my impressions of a city I lived in after more than 20 years of absence.

Skinlines

This is a project that has been in the making for a few years.  The way our bodies resemble the natural world, the golden number, the curves and valleys on our bodies just like the ones on mother earth inspired this series.

An amazing find for me today was this…

http://www.ted.com/

An interesting site that covers a variety of topics including this one, that I found really fascinating :

http://www.ted.com/talks/craig_venter_unveils_synthetic_life.html

Fluid photons

The idea of capturing movement as you can see by many of my images is a fascination.  Though freezing a moment in history and documenting what is seen are photography’s “raison d’etre”, capturing movement has also fascinated photographers for as long.  To me it’s  the ability to transforming light and objects we know allowing the photographer to create abstracts.

I call my style  “natural photography” where nature’s laws help to create an image by allowing a free movement to the camera or long exposure while taking a photograph. Thus using gravity and the forth dimension to explore movement in photography.

Tattoos n’ Tutus

I’m working on a new series called “Tattoos n’ Tutus”.   I have always liked tattoos, I mean they are just so cool to look at.  A living painting, and when done right tattoos are beautiful, full of color and vibrant.

However, my opinion is not one shared by a majority,  I think many people still have the wrong idea when they see someone with tattoos.  There is still a bit of fear, rejection and the belief that tattoos and anti social behavior go hand in hand.

I guess with this series I am showing a softer, funnier side of people who, like myself, just simply love “Ink” and it’s not even for show but as a proof of a life story lived.  Stories told in tattoos.  The contrast of the “Hard” tattoo and the “Soft/Classic” is used as a comedic medium to bring the audience and the subject closer … to allow room for talk where fear no longer exists.

So … here is one to wet your appetite.  Look for more as I will post them as I finish each shoot.  If you like this series and know people with lots and lots of tattoos send them my way.  Maybe we can add their images and stories to the series.

Latest addition to the series, Rosa was amazing to work with.  She got so into the concept when we talked about it that the results were far better than expected.

Red Woman

In Japanese “Acai” means red and  “Me” is Woman.

The second collaboration between Acaime and I gave us these images.

A Dragon is a symbol of power, protection and prosperity in Asian cultures, and the subject of her piece.

Webbed City

Webbed city, a series that looks at the urban environment.  Our skylines littered by electric and streetcar wires offering us a different view.  Energy and entrapment.  A man-made powerful web that withholds to all winds, ice and storms.  Holding us captive and dependent to its power.  Often overlooked; these images offer a view of the real city in its web.