HT2008 - Just a Little Bit Tired

here's a thought i'll title just a little bit tired it's kind of an odd observation

but i've noticed over the decades anyway of my being out photographing that i tend to make

better pictures when i'm just a little bit tired there's a fine line there if i'm wide awake and

energetic and my mind is firing on all cylinders and etc i notice that i tend to make images that

are somewhat stilted they're not loose they're not natural i compose a little too tightly

and on the other hand if i'm really tired and i'm exhausted i just don't have the energy to

compose an image or to look for an image instead i'm more likely to stay in the truck put the seat

back and take a nap but when i'm just

a little bit tired there is a sweet spot in there and i've stood on this for a long time as to why

that is and eventually i can't remember when but i came to the realization that maybe i did

understand why i made better pictures when i was just a little bit tired when i was at the end of

a 400 mile drive if it was just the right amount of tired my brain relaxes i'm not

thinking i'm not thinking i'm not thinking i'm not thinking i'm not thinking i'm not thinking

so much. I'm not forcing things. I'm more willing to let things come to me. I'm more willing to let

those ideas that come up from my subconscious to bubble up to the surface. So it's a more relaxed

atmosphere. And maybe that's the key. Maybe it's not nearly so much that I'm slightly tired as that

I'm slightly relaxed, which I suppose could happen with an adult beverage, a few moments of

silent observing or even meditation, a little bit of stretching before I go out photographing,

any way that I can let go of trying to be in such control that I try to dominate and make

things happen that are being forced into existence rather than just flowing.

Another way to think about this is that when I cooperate with nature, I tend to get better

images, better landscapes. When I cooperate with the light in an interior, I get better interior

shots. When I cooperate with my inclinations, my own responses, my life experiences that I bring

to a photographic instant, that cooperation seems to make better photographs.

Then when I try to force something, the same thing could be said in processing.

When I try to make something by forcing it into my predetermined will, they always end up looking

a little over-processed or something just doesn't seem right about them. But when I try to listen

to what the photograph wants to become and then help it achieve that by nudging certain things

in a direction that I don't want to, then I can make it happen.

Here or a direction there. That kind of processing creates a relaxed, I might almost say normal

appearance to my photographs that look as though they just happened rather than that they were

hammered into submission. So whether or not that happens when you get a little bit tired

or when you employ a relaxation technique, I think it's a good idea to allow

the process to unfold and be a participant with the world as you photograph it rather than to try

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