That will be the only full reference to the cliche saying, I promise.
During lockdown I bought myself an entry level DSLR camera to fend off the idleness of being stuck at home unable even to do the most basic things to pass the time as I recovered from dislocating my left shoulder earlier this year. I learned very quickly that taking a good photograph on such a device is a lot harder than it appears.
All the knobs and dials and settings- and I still don’t know what DSLR means!
If you’re anything like me however, using the “automatic” mode simply feels like cheating.
So I began venturing outside with the camera and taking snaps of anything and everything, experimenting aimlessly with different settings to see what they did and slowly but surely I started to figure out what did what.
After a few weeks of this I stopped and asked myself what the point was? What was I trying to achieve? What was I trying to show? I couldn’t answer the question, I felt like I was cycling without any particular destination in mind.
Ironically, it’s when I left my camera at home that it hit me.
I would be going about my business every day coasting through life when out of the corner of my eye I’d see what I can only describe as a “moment”. A scene playing out for a frozen second of time. One of those seemingly normal events on the surface but within which is held a human story. It began to happen multiple times a day and eventually I would find myself drifting back to those moments and thinking about what was going on behind the scenes. What does reflection on such things tell us about ourselves? About the world around us?
The highlight came when I was walking late at night and as I crossed the empty road I looked to my right up the hill and could see, above the road and between the street lights the moon hanging impressively in the sky. The symbolism, the natural beauty, the contrast of the silver road markings to the silver and speckled white in the night sky.
It was really in that moment I realised what I was trying to achieve through the lens of my camera. I was trying to capture those moments, to preserve them forever, for others to see as well as me. I began to bring my camera with me practically wherever I could and slowly but surely like a fisherman waits for the bite, the moments flew past me at just the right moment.
I captured the humanity of the busker playing to passers-by in the autumn afternoon beneath the Old Oak Tree. Captured the awe I felt at the wild Deer staring through the thickets directly at me.
The wild Deer staring at me through the thickets and the trees.
And I guess I realised what it really meant when I looked back at my favourite photographs, and felt all the emotions and memories rush back of each one, what 1000 words really means.
So the purpose of this blog is document my journey in learning how to take better photographs, sharing with you all my results, all the lessons I learn and all the memories I make along the way.
I want to learn with DSLR means, I want to decipher all the technical language that photographers discuss things in and make it simple for me to understand. I want to practically apply the advice that I pick up and I want to capture the moments I see as best as I can- for you.
Who knows where this journey will take me? I look forward to seeing the results.
Take a look at my gallery here for all the photographs I share online and click on my social media links at the top of my blog to see what I get up to on Youtube, Twitter and Instagram and hey-
If you like what you see, please consider supporting me by following me on any of my social media platforms above.
Lots of thanks!
Mike.
Painting a Thousand Words 