There is no substitute for slowing down and being quiet for a few moments. We are all trained from a young age about the process of having our picture taken.. sit smile look at the camera. In time the look becomes practiced and plastic. When we slow down its possible to break those well worn habits of how we have learned to “show for the camera”. The opportunity for the images to reveal something deeper becomes possible. This image was taken with a medium format digital back that I’ve been playing with, and trying to get to work, for the last few months. Its a 10+ year old technology, that’s ancient history in digital speak. The camera is much slower than my current camera, 1 shot every second and a half vs 6 frames per second. Its amazing how far the technology has come in those years but the one thing that stays constant…. the effect of slowing down.
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I stand still or move slowly, feeling things like the impulse of shapes, the direction of lines, the quality of surfaces. I frame with my eye (sometimes with my hands) as the ground glass would frame. Nothing that one could reasonably call thinking is taking place at this stage. The condition is total absorption; the decision (a picture!) is spontaneous. – Aaron Siskind, 1955