At This Very Moment

I am listening to CBC Radio 1 Ideas program featuring photographer Freeman Patterson.

He says in his first photography class at the YMCA in New York City in the Sixties, his instructor made students take all of their photographs on a tripod.  And even after the class was over, Patterson was afraid to shoot off the tripod for a year.

He states in relation to that anecdote that the main failure of photographers now is a lack of discipline--even among serious and professional photographers.  He also relates that the most satisfying  part of photography for him is developing a relationship with his subject--drinking in the image of a field of wheat or some ferns and he can better develop this relationship by slowing down and using a tripod.

Oddly enough, I spent a year teaching myself photography in the early 70's by shooting only from a tripod for a full year.  No one told me to do this or even suggested it.  I just knew it was the right thing to do. I wonder how many young digital photographers will practice the same discipline.  I do wonder.

Photo by my friend, the inspired photographer, MM