Incremental Me

I was inspired this morning by a YouTube video called How to Photograph Boring Places. I happen to live in the boring middle of nowhere of Southern California. In fact, the catchphrase for the city I live in, Buena Park, is the “Center of the Southland.” It’s 21 miles southeast of Los Angeles in an endless grid of houses and small businesses. My neighborhood is bordered by a huge freeway and a six-lane road. It’s a small island of 1960s-era houses, with nothing of interest even close. It’s the definition of visually boring. Everything looks the same as everything else, for miles and miles in every direction.

I struggled to find inspiration until I learned to see things differently. In the video, a photographer mentions that he did not expect to see a suitcase on top of a hill he climbed. He saw an interesting photo, and because he had his camera with him, he captured it. A beautiful photo to my eye, but perhaps not to others.

I think of inspiration as an incremental process. I learn how to open myself to inspiration by watching a video, looking at another person’s work, or learning to see differently. Translating this to a better photo takes work, and improvements come in tiny, incremental steps. It’s a fun process if you are open to it.

I don’t think of photography as taking a photo; instead, I’ve learned to think of it as making a photo. I control the outcome. I can take a photo of a friend in a few moments, but it may take months to make an interesting photo. I look at the photos I take and ask myself how I can make them better. The process moves forward in small steps. Eventually, I end up with something I think is beautiful.

Making a beautiful or interesting photo is difficult in my neighborhood, but I consider it a challenge. There are the obvious easy targets of flowers and birds, but although interesting, they are not the kind of photos that inspire me. I’ve taken a few good shots over the years. This shot of the 91 Freeway from a footbridge is perhaps my favorite.

I did a quick search of my photo library. I took over 200 photos from that spot and I like just one. It was taken on my iPhone instead of my Fuji or Nikon. I still consider it an incidental shot. There were about 140 photos taken leading up to this one. I can see improvements in my process between my first photo and this one, and that’s what I love.