Hi, I am Charlie Borland and welcome to my All About Photography newsletter. I have been a pro photographer for over 40 years and have a lot to share with you. Please join the photo adventure by subscribing.
This is my first Quick Shot post, something I will do regularly. This is a quick and short post on photography thoughts and experiences.
The Little Tree That Tried
This photo was captured in Belize a few years ago when my wife and I took a month off and headed down there with thoughts of exploring, chilling out, and entertaining the idea of staying somewhere tropical for much longer than than amonth.
We still entertain that idea!
As we planned that trip, I intentionally decided against bringing my DSLR equipment because I knew once I started packing cameras and lenses, I would fall into that pro photography mindset, developed over 40 years of packing gear for commercial photoshoots.
That mindset is the need to take all my gear for fear of forgetting an important piece of photo equipment, that once on location, you realize you forgot. Then the terror sets in followed by MacGyver mode as I try to solve a problem that does not exist yet.
I opted instead to spend a month of Happy Snappin’ with the iPhone and am so glad I did. It was a completely different photography experience than I was used to. No extensive setup, no client, no deadlines, no appeasing anybody but myself (and my non-photographer wife.)
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And Ambergris Caye, Belize was a visual feast!
The condo we rented was 1 mile from the center of San Pedro Town and we walked there every day to dine and explore. And Happy Snap!
That walk into town included a variety of pathways to get there from normal sidewalks to gravel to no path at all and sharing the road with lots of golf carts.
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During one of those excursions, in an area where you must walk on the road, was this little tree that I stepped over as I continued my journey into town. But 10 steps later, my non-stop mindset of looking for a photograph every waking moment, caught up with me and I realized that this was a photo worth capturing. I stopped, turned around, and went back to study it.
Here was this little tree, or shrub, or……? Lying there on the pavement, flattened from being run over by scores of wide-tire golf carts.
It was beautiful! It was sad but had me wondering what it was. Where did it come from? Was it young or could it be a miniature old-growth tree? Was it trying to cross the road? Uh, no! It looked to me to be an old subshrub that somehow found its way into the road.
When I pulled out the iPhone and started looking at the screen, shooting straight down was the best way to compose it. It was the only way because it was a still-life subject and no dramatic angle was gonna tell a better story. The only story was the little tree lying there.
Fortunately, we were in the shade at the moment so there was no directional lighting or extreme shadows, which, like photographing wildflowers, can kill a photo from too much lighting contrast.
I happily snapped away!
Later, while we were sitting in San Pedro Town scarfing fish tacos and washing them down with a beer, I opened the image in my favorite image processing app, MIX, and started playing. There are a lot of different preset ‘looks’ available and I tried many from color versions to black and white.
I liked most of these experiments with the MIX app and saved them all before abandoning the photography mindset and heading to the Lazy Lizard for another beer. Later, that night, I reviewed my previous quick processing and nailed down my favorite: this grainy black and white.
The whole month in Belize went pretty much the same. Being tourists, chilling, and happy snapping in between everything else. By the time we came home, I had captured a lot of images and was feeling extremely satisfied with all the amazing colors, textures, people, and visual stimulation.
My need to always create with a camera had been fully nurtured and without any of the distractions and pressures that come with pro photography.
Just me with a camera! I highly recommend it.
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I agree, but thankful for an awesome pose/scene.
Poor tree!