Blue Mountains Photographer ~ Snake Hunting

It's the perfect day for snakes... so I went hunting.
Usually, it's not recommended for you to move stealthily through the bush because the snakes don't know you're coming.  In my case, the reason was to not let the snake know that I was coming... so I crept.

If you do wish to snake hunt, wear really tough boots... I wear walking boots which also have a steel toe cap... I don't know why but they do.  Hey, you never know when they'll come in handy!
Anyway, your boots should come a decent way up your leg given that most snake bites are on the foot or ankle... if you want to be extra safe, a pair of shin pads is handy and cheap.

Snakes rarely bite with venom the first time... In fact, they're quite happy to give you a warning 'punch' first, which can sometimes break the skin.  It's happened to me once and I didn't even know I'd been punched until I got home and found two marks on my shin, about the space apart that fangs are.  I do remember thinking at the time that something had hit my leg and assumed it was a stick, but sticks generally don't leave fang marks. : )
It did take a long time to heal I remember.  So shin pads... and boots, and probably good trousers no matter how hot it is.

Our snakes are quite notoriously shy, the most common being the Red belly Black where I am.  We also have Brown snakes, but they seem to be more shy or less in number as I have real difficulty locating them.
Today was no exception.
I have several spots on my morning walk where I know they hang out, one is a sewerage cover which is concrete.  A large Brown snake loves this spot in the early morning and evening and I've seen him there several times, curled up in his glossy, fat brown rings to warm up before dinner.  This morning however, he wasn't there.

In fact, whilst gently creeping through the bush, I found nothing except a pretty Bush orchid ...

and a fairly juvenile Blue Tongue lizard, who'd draped himself over a branch to get more sun.

On my equally stealthy walk back along the track, a fat fly was trying to take a bite out of me, so I leant over to grab some grass to swish him away and there was a baby Blue tongue.  He looked a little dead, so I touched him to make sure and bingo, a big mouth and blue tongue flashed at me and he shoved his head under a pile of leaves and grass.

So no snakes this morning... Try again tomorrow.

Free Wedding Photography

I'm giving away four free weddings in NSW over the coming months.

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Style

Style has no formula, but it has a secret key.
It is the extension of your personality.
Ernst Haas

My eleven year old daughter has told me that she can always recognize one of my photographs, even when they're with a load of others, like on the Korowal school website for example.  This is because they have a certain style.
Someone who's just started in photography recently asked me how long it took to 'define' my 'style'.
The honest answer to that is that I don't really know though at a guess, probably two to three years if we're talking about what I present to you when I take a photograph right now.
But style is not just about 'seeing'... it's about showing who you are through your artwork.  It's an extension of your personality.

But how can you develop a style?  And why should you?  Is it really that important?

If I gave you a load of photographs from Ansel Adams, Yousuf Karsh and Jerry N. Uelsman, (three of my photographic gods) you'd have no problems sorting them out because of their difference in style.

Creating a style is about a unique way of 'seeing'.  The way you see things is the way no-one else sees... and the way you see is coloured by who you are.

 People don't watch enough. They think. It's not the same thing.
Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri, above, has it totally on the nail when he says people don't watch enough.  As a photographer, you need to see whatever it is you see and the only way to do that is watch.
It always amazes me how many photographers copy other famous photographers styles.  I see it time and time again in the exhibitions I visit.  There's nothing really wrong with this legally.  It's a good exercise to produce something 'in the style of', and you'd probably get asked to do this if you were at art school or doing a photography course... but for your photography it's not your vision you're using, it's theirs.
Developing your own style isn't about copying someone else's style, it's about knowing who you are, the way you see and letting your work become an extension of who you are inside.  If you make a living from copying someone else's work, you're not including your own personality in that.


Everyone seems to use Photoshop these days.  PS is full of filters, actions, and techniques.  These are not new and throwing the latest PS technique over your shots won't give you style.  PS is merely the software version of what has been available in the darkroom for many, many years.  Often, working in PS or other software manipulation can lead to new discoveries... new ways of processing, but PS is not a style in itself.  It's a medium... Something that can help you achieve your personal style.

I know of some photographers who PS the hell out of their shots, when the shot that came out of the camera first was absolutely fine and good.    Did it need to be re-coloured, softened, sharpened, actioned, etc?  Nope.  Leave it alone.  Let it speak for itself.
There's a pressure here... 'What do you mean, you don't use PS?'  'Really?'
Yes, really.  I have PS.  It sits here monolith like on my computer and wow, it's a great tool, but I rarely open it for any of my photographs.  It's not what defines my style.  If you'd be lost without digital manipulation tools, then why is that?

And as regards my style, I'm not sure that I have entirely finished developing it.  To say that I've finished would be an acknowledgement that I've stopped growing as a person, and that's just simply not true.  Whilst I guess my personality has pretty much set, my growth as who I am has not.  If I look at my very early photographs, they're very different to what I do now, technically and in style.
I'm still journeying.
My only advice to those who are developing their style... keep taking photographs, keep making mistakes, don't be afraid of making errors, keep learning, keep experimenting but most of all, enjoy it.

Style isn't a destination, it's a journey.