Earlier in the week I sent off a picture to a local newspaper about some rubbish and algae growth pollution fouling a local pond near me; in particular, the impact that was having on the 9 pairs of waterbirds who call the pond home, (plus the just plain ugly mess). The journalist I knew from an article she did on me as part of the promotion for the Lecture series I spoke at, last year… The journo, Vera, phoned me today and asked me to meet one of their photographers at the ponds in the park.. Vera said it is better to include a person in a newspaper photo.. So we met up at 2, this arvo.. Robert was his name… also there an old gent, called Geoff, who lives nearby and has been pushing the local media about the rubbish for some time.
I was interested in how the photographer went about his work… even though he was hampered by the Nikon equipment he carried, and found the approach he took quite fascinating. In addition, some ducks had just hatched several ducklings and one of the local black swans came quite close to us, to mooch food, I guess… and that made the event even better.
What I found was the “icing on the cake”, was having a chat with the photographer afterwards, this making him miss his deadline. Turns out he is a keen nature photographer… so I showed him mine, on the iPad, from NZ and Patagonia and he chatted about his recent South Africa adventure.. and I subsequently checked out his very interesting and at time dramatic images of the animals of South Africa, on the net.
Which leads me to what I concluded about today… Just what does motivate us? What drives people to travel to the other side of the planet to photograph strange animals or lumps of ice and rock? Why?
I know I enjoy my photography… enjoy being one of my “its” and I have figured out why I like wilderness photography… but why photography.. why not art.. fishing.. buying property.. I am not really sure…
What motivates Robert.. to be a professional photographer… and then take a “busman’s holiday” and go off and take photos of strange animals on the other side of the planet?
Black Swans near home
The first sign of madness 