Maine Media Workshop - intro

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July 5, 2009

Have you ever been in a room with a group of people with whom you felt, at least on the surface, that you had nothing in common? This group of like-minded or like-feeling individuals didn’t know one another before but they didn’t have to. It appears that they get it and I don’t. They are Photographers and I take snapshots. At least this is how I felt tonight listening to the introduction to the workshops at the Maine Media Workshop where I’ve enrolled in “Photographing the Colors of the Maine Landscape.”

There are 15 workshops starting tonight ranging from digital still photography to video, lighting, and film. And all the students, one-hundred plus of them, except for me are, according to the Charles Altshultz, the Executive Director, creative and ready to delve deep into the process, to go six days long and hard, all in a Herculean effort to become a more seasoned professional or, as I heard more than once tonight, to “find my voice” in photography or worse, “learn to paint with photographs.” What the fuck does any of that mean? Find my voice. That’s what vocal chords are for. Paint with photographs. That’s what a paint brush is for.

I just want to learn to take better pictures, learn how to use the camera better, develop a better eye, and nobody is thinking that shallowly but me. I stand alone, a freak for the Workshop, a left brainer to be shunned or eaten. We will see how this works itself out.

Starting early today.

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Comments

[madeline]

You can just give up the photography anyway and go into writing, that is where you shine... loved the blog...

[jan r. lewis]

Come to Lake George
David, you need to be with us sitting around the evening fire, listening to the water splash on the rocks while we sip our red wine and take photographs of the wine bottle, our feet, body parts, the fire..... whatever gets in the way. I admire you. Love, Jan