Musings of an Intrepid Commuter: photographs

Making photographs!

Making photographs. I borrowed that phrase from Steve Williams. It's a term that he uses and has been applied to him by others. Interestingly, I finally have a clue as to what it really means. More on that in just a bit.

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted much, lately. If you're one who's noticed, I'm flattered and honored. I guess I just sort of lost interest. So many things demand our time, don't they? I'd gotten to the point where I felt like I'd run out of things to say. It's interesting how time seems to "label" us. For example, the above mentioned Steve Williams has always appeared to me to be the philosophical professor with artistic leanings. When I think of Steve I first think of photography. Gary C. was the dashing test pilot. Jack R. is the naughty boy who was always getting his hand whacked by the teacher's ruler. Lucky in Arizona is the quintessential Viking, looting and plundering. Conchscooter? Well, he's sort of in a unique and refreshing class by himself. Although I noticed he just satisfied the urge to become an Iron Butt member! Congratulations.

The above descriptions are meant with the utmost respect and high regards, by the way. All of us have our unique spaces we occupy. Mine has been that of a teacher and riding guru, it seems. That's both rewarding and limiting at the same time.

I'm still riding and teaching. Just not writing about it. I mean, how interesting can it be reading about where I go during my day? I like reading about you all, but don't find the same interest when it's about me. There's still some great stories from my students and people I meet. I just lost interest in sharing.

You might remember how back in July I took a photography class. It was a five week course, meeting one night a week for three hours. Something clicked for me. Since then I have spent most of my spare time reading and studying books on photography. The world of exposure, composition, ISO selections, shutter speeds, and aperature settings suddenly make sense. I'm finding out what an amazing camera the Nikon D40 actually is for someone like me. Obviously, I'm nowhere near an accomplished photographer. However, I've let go of the automatic settings and set out on fully manual adventures with the camera. With some results that aren't too bad, either.

Here's an example from this weekend. This is inside a dark room at an aquarium. There were so many people trying to get photos with point and shoot cameras with a flash. While this particular photo isn't spectacular, I was able to get a clear and colorful shot by manually adjusting the camera's settings. It was something I would never have known how to do until recently.

Another amazing thing has happened. A lot of my enthusiasm has returned. Motorcycles will always be the main part of my life. Behind Katie and family, of course. I'm a motorcyclist. It's who I am. It's what I do. Exploring photography has started me out looking at everything in a different way. Maybe I was ripe for a new challenge. I've always been the kind that needed a carrot on a stick held out in front of me. The experience of trying to conquer photography has gotten me looking at motorcycling in a whole new way, also.

It's time for a fresh approach. I'm going to try to make motorcycling connections through my camera lense. It will be fun, I think. Photography and motorcycling are alike in one way. When you first start out, everything looks like this:

This was actually the result of a dumb, but funny mistake. This is from a hotel room balcony. I had the camera on a tripod and set for a slow shutter speed. Then I used the self timer to make the shutter fire so I didn't shake the camera when I pressed the button. So what do I do? As soon as the camera clicked, I forgot that the shutter was still open and whisked the thing back into the room! Interesting effect, though. I'm sharing this because if we're afraid to look silly then our learning will be severely curtailed.