so many people need to go to far away places. they save their money and materials and buy tickets or gas they sign up for workshops in the desert or to someplace remote. they photograph for a week or a few days, return and loved their experience. i’ve never been able to do that, and part of me is jelous of photo-safarians.
when i go to someplace i am not used to, i am struck by what i see, the unfamiliar sometimes overwhelms me. that isn’t to say i can’t make any photographs, but i’ll be on auto pilot and make exposures of what comes to mind, what might remind me of the familiar, things i am used to, things i am comfortable with — the usual. a lot of what i photograph for the most part is the unfamiliar familiar.
i am usually within a short distance from where i live, or have spent a lot of time and i am familiar with the scene that i am able to read it differently and notice things i hadn’t noticed before. very much like a portrait photographer might make a portrait. there are only a handful of head and face shapes, ways of making a portrait, and even if the person is a complete stranger, a portrait photographer is able to not only make a familiar light and head position and camera position but make the person feel at ease.
its no too late to photograph things close by, things you know by heart, things you see every day but don’t bother because they are too familiar, sometimes the familiar make the best subjects.