The love of my life and I have an idiosyncratic argument that plays out all too often, but especially when we’re traveling.
Me: Stop walking so fast.
Her: Walking has no health benefits if you don’t walk fast.
Me: I’m not walking for health benefits.
Her: No, you’re walking because you’re a pervert.
Me: You keep walking into my frame.
Her: People will think you’re a creep the way you point your camera at them.
Me: I can’t very well take their photo if I don’t point my camera at them. And I can’t point my camera at them if you’re in the way.
So I end up with a lot of photos of my wife as a blurred figure through what could have been an interesting street scene.
I recently attended a talk by the maritime photographer, Kas Stone, during which she mentioned in passing the so-called travel paradox. Most photographers share the experience of traveling to outstanding or exotic locations only to return home with images that are meh at best. There may be a number of reasons for this but one, she speculates, is that we travel with (typically) non-photographer companions who cramp our style. It’s not really that they cramp our style so much as that their presence injects guilt-laden mind games into our process. Here we are, doing what we love. There they are, in this amazing locale, waiting patiently for us and doing their best to mask their boredom. We feel guilty. We rush so we can move on to things our companions will enjoy. In our haste, we compromise our process and end up with crappy photos.
I’ve developed a couple workarounds. The first is to arrange my travel on the coattails of my wife’s working trips. That way, while she’s spending weekdays in an office, I’m free to wander alone. We meet for dinner at the end of the day and spend our evenings together. I don’t feel guilty about doing whatever I need to do to get my shot. And she doesn’t feel guilty telling me she’s impatient because she’s already given me scads of time on my own.
But not all our time is divided. For the time we are together and (naturally) I still insist on shooting, I have a second workaround. I restrict myself to street photography. Not the street photography that frames a scene and watches patiently as people pass through the frame. But the street photography that responds to the immediacy of the pageant that continually unfolds in public spaces. Because it demands split-second responses, it doesn’t tax anyone’s patience. It becomes a game. How good a shot can I get with less than a second to compose it?