View allAll Photos Tagged Persistence
Let's be honest, there is a difference between being creative and becoming creative. Being creative can be a relatively simple task, done almost reflexively after a certain point. Becoming creative involves lots of hard work over long periods of time. It requires patience, persistence, and dedication. You have to suffer through a lot of failed experiments and procure a lot of experience to become creative. There isn't a book or a Pop Photo article you can read, a class you can take or anything else you can do that will make this an overnight process. Becoming doesn't happen overnight... it happens over years. After all, if becoming a more creative photographer were as simple as reading a magazine article, everyone would be more creative photographers.
Ok, so I started with the bad news. Not that I am pessimistic, just realistic. And having realistic expectations set in place will help you fend off becoming discouraged or disenchanted with the process of becoming.
Having said that, I do have several pieces of advice that I have learned over the years that have helped me and I figured I would share a few - not all today, I don't have that much time. We can at least get started down this particular path though.
So, I have already offered advice #1. Be prepared to be in it for the long haul and practice, practice, practice. I think creativity is a skill. Some people start naturally more adept at creativity than others, but even those who start out being relatively uncreative can become vastly more creative through sheer practice. If we were to go back ten years to my beginnings as a photographer I don't think those first few scratches in the dirt were all that creative at all. But I practiced. And practiced. And like any other skill, it improves with practice. So even if you don't think you are a very creative photographer now, make a point to practice it and trust me, you will get better. The improvement will likely be slow and at times seem immeasurable, much like the creep of a glacier. But just like that glacier, your improvement is still moving along. Be patient.
One more piece before I get running for the day. Be curious and be fearless. Let's start with fearless. Specifically, don't be afraid of making bad photos and lots of them. Your mistakes teach you, so the more mistakes you make the more you learn. And in a certain sense, if you learn something from a photo and have become slightly better for it, is it really a bad photo? Sure it may not make Explorer but it has made you better for what it taught you. Make a point to learn something from every mistake and you no longer make bad images. And be fearless in this. I think some photographers are afraid of making mistakes so they don't experiment. They stick to the safe, well-lit, well-traveled paths. These usually result in fairly solid photos.... of the exact same nature as all those other photographers traveling the same trails. Experimentation is a key ingredient to the creative process and if you are afraid of failure then the next thing you will be afraid of is experimentation.
And be curious about everything. Wonder as often as you can. Then answer those curious questions in your head with photos. Don't assume you know the answer, make the image. Quite often you will end up somewhere you never expected to.
More to come.
Persistence
Arches National Park, Utah
Balanced Rock has always reminded me how temporary and fragile everything really is, yet how much strength stands in the quiet moments. I photographed this scene as the Milky Way drifted across the sky, lighting the night with that soft green airglow that shows up only when conditions are perfect.
This place holds a special meaning for me — a reminder that even the most delicate things can endure through time, weather, and every storm thrown at them. Sometimes that’s all any of us can hope for: to persist, to stand our ground, and to keep our balance when the world around us keeps shifting.
I had spent a good deal of time looking for field patterns when I just about stopped looking. It was time to make my way back to the crossroads where I had started and make the long trek home. When I arrived at the crossroads, it was necessary to pull over and put my equipment away.
When I stepped out of the car, this is the image that lay in front of me and the very shot I had been looking. The sun had set and subtle colors stood on the horizon. The organized and straight lines in the field lay in perfect contrast to the sweeping blue cloud above them. And the color on the horizon separated the two.
Sometimes it is patience that pays off in photography, sometimes it is just plane luck. But now and then I find persistence in both life and photography pays off in dividends. I have been searching for this shot for many months to deliver on a challenge from a flickr friend named Frank Gadarowski. To "find a Prairie field that just seems to go on forever", like this one.
Copyright Susan Ogden
Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.
Thomas Carlyle
Tis the season for permanence, perseverance, and persistence ...the holidays are approaching like a freight train, straight for us....stay strong my peeps...stay strong!
( I am SO much more cut out for the 4th of July, on the beach with a blanket and a book or Halloween, awed by the creativity of the costumes that i see, than for the cold frenzy of the holiday season. It is hard for me to explain and hard for most everyone i know to understand...)
Don’t get me wrong...i love giving...it is the getting that i struggle with.. i do not enjoy the attention, It makes me uncomfortable to have to be in any form of spotlight, and “Thank you” never seems to be quite enough. I always feel like that is so inadequate for the gifts i get. i just want to see everyone else smile...and i just want not to be judged because i am the quiet one in the corner of the room taking in everything around me and leaving now and then to regroup and breathe...even if it is just to slip into the bathroom and lock the door and absorb the quiet that is there. I will cope...and come out the other side of the holiday frenzy intact.
For those of you that love all this...the hustle, the noise, the presents, the food, the craziness....Bless you all...please feel free to enjoy every last bit of mine, while i watch you from a quieter place and smile! That is my gift to me!
Persistence and a bit of luck paying off as things finally come together. EZY1895 from Manchester to Berlin TXL cruising high above the country at 39.000ft.
A solitary leaf still hanging on to a stalk in my garden after all the rain, wind and snow since the fall!!
Interpreted in monochrome using a Topaz preset that brings out the contrasts and details of the image.
Missing EXIF info:
F-stop: f/7.1
Exposure: 1/800
ISO: 250
Focal length: 150mm
I've shot at this location more times than I care to remember. I like the composition but the conditions were never right in regards to the sky. All that changed today and I came home reasonably happy. Sunset at Gosforth, New South Wales. Australia.
Small waterfall at Juara Village in Tioman, Island Malaysia. D800E | F11 | 6 Sec
Thanks for your visit.
“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins. Not through strength, but through persistence.” ~ Author Unknown
#2 of 5 new uploads....thought I'd return to some shots from our fall trip to Yellowstone....this series of shots was taken in the Lamar Valley near the Lamar Ranger Station (aka the Buffalo Ranch). Every season offers a unique perspective into the beauty of this landscape, and I cannot wait to return after Christmas for some winter shots :-)
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving (or Thursday)....and wishing everyone a fabulous weekend. Thanks for all your wonderful comments & visits!!!!!
This black squirrel is persistently trying to get up the bird feeder pole. He made it once and I raised the baffle up a bit higher. I'm sure we will have fun trying new ways to discourage his scavenging.
"Persistence" - Exodus Fleet Mobile Construction Yard
Length: 105 studs
Number of parts: not a clue
This is where most vessels in the Exodus fleet are constructed and repaired. The mobile refinery supplies the construction yard with refined metal from nearby asteroids.
Currently a batch of fighters are loaded up for testing in the main hangar. In the mid ship construction dock a new Attack Frigate is under construction.
This is my SHIPtember SHIP for 2016. My goal was to use that big yellow Duplo part, and use some kind of lighting. The ship's interior is somewhat lit up by a EL-wire and the construction dock is lit by lifelites.
So the second lesson learned from my House of Refuge shoot was persistence. I went with the intention of getting some great wave action and I chose this shot to show it. I pretty much stood near the edge getting splashed and soaked and I kept wiping the lens until I got something I liked. So I remained persistent and got a shot that I love. I actually learned one more thing at that moment... Bring a raincoat next time lol.
We watched this sea otter for quite some time. He found several clams that he had a real tough time with. He would try to open some for a very long time - this is just a short clip of this persistent otter. He was well fed by the way!
My persistence paid off (and all of my bribes to the guards)! You never know if following age old rumors and stories will lead to an actual find, but this time they did. The Laird definitely was successful on the High Seas. Now to see if I can convince the estate to let me keep some of this, or at least donate it to the people that work in the castle.
Persistence pays off (sometimes!).....
Taken a couple of days ago during my most recent sunrise visit to Chalky Beach, NSW; Australia.
Living nearly 1 hour away from this location, I can't always rely on the accuracy of the weather forecasts or other apps such as Skippy Sky to give me the information as to how good a sunrise might be.
So I get up and leave home in the dark and wait before arrival hoping that I might have chanced a good sunrise - but this location seldom fails to reward anyway, as it has some amazing rock formations with wonderful textures and is relatively safe during most stages of tide!
As you can see, I managed to get some nice golden light at sunrise, and that teamed up with the Chalky rocks; I hope I have provided an image that appeals to you!!!
Helped by using my Lee .6 ProGlass ND + Lee .9 Hard Grad filers to counter exposures.
Have a fantastic day and week - thanks again for any comments, viewings or favorites - greatly appreciated as usual!!!