Settling Into Normal?

I am not the kind of guy that takes the easy way out of a situation and do not look for a fast solution. I love and can suspend myself in the process of things in which I become involved. I like to savor the experience of whatever it is I am doing and explore it from a multitude of different perspectives. Often times we only get to experience something once, so I like to linger and make it last. People are this way for me. Sometimes I will only get one opportunity to work with a person, yet I will fit a life time of experience into that moment. It feels like others around me are hurrying to get to the end. I guess I would be the tortoise in that race. I live in a world where nothing is normal and virtually everyday is filled with something extraordinary. When I do a shoot I am often concerned that my slow process of working will push my subjects away, which hasn’t happened yet. In fact it tends to draw them nearer. I believe my images and subjects should be as natural and organic as possible so the evolution of a shoot takes some time to explore and get to what I see in the core of my subject’s intensity. I tend to over shoot and look at all the options and possibilities, constantly adjusting lighting, exposure, and point of view. I had a kid come in yesterday who was an actor and a model, he had some experience, which is rare for me to get to work with. We hit it off and suddenly 3 hours had flown by within what felt like just a few moments for both of us. I rely on my education in theatre as a directing student and bring those skills into my studio and my way of working. I do love to work with actors, because of my admiration for their art and I my ability to communicate with them so well, to pull out what I see emerging from within them. The art of photography, as with theatre, for me is collaboration. Yes I may have a concept in mind, but it rarely becomes the path I follow, it merely becomes a jumping off point.

So I have this concept every day of my time, and how I envision my day will go. I keep thinking in my head that things will get back to normal and that I will settle in. There is a part of me that desperately craves that kind of normal, but my reality is it never ever happens. I can never seem to reach that state of normal I think I desire to settle into. This last week I have been working afternoons at UPS instead of evenings and this always throws my schedule a bit out of whack because my normal afternoon photo stuff gets misplaced to other time slots that I can try to cram things into. Yesterday I did a photo from start to finish in one day. It gave me a great sense of completion. When I first started the process of photography, it was my goal to do an art project from shooting to framing in one day and was so jacked when I hit the mark, but then I only did one thing. How times have changed. Then again what I do is really not normal!!!

VIEW FULL IMAGE: George #209