When Painters take Pictures

I love to take pictures. Sometimes this love draws me to covet photo equipment. This is just as sinful a desire as coveting… What was it? Your neighbor’s wife. Right. You can tell it’s sinful, if you’ve had this desire, because of the senseless intensity, and by the cost of the photo equipment itself, oh AND by the way it leads you to temp others into a similar folly. I have a great digital camera. I have this great digital camera because my father upgraded to an even greater one. Whenever the opportunity presents itself I shamelessly encourage him to upgrade again.

But I don’t really need to upgrade. I have endless fun working with the camera I have. Limitations are key to creativity. As it is I eschew the basic photo equipment at my disposal like flashes and tripods for more entertaining ventures. For example, I am perfecting my ability to stand still and breathless in a dark church for the length of time it takes to capture my image. In aquariums I try to move my camera at the same speed as the fish to achieve something close to focus. This maneuver is really more fun than I can describe. Outside I apply the ‘just keep clicking’ technique that almost always results in something interesting. Back in the days of film my father-in-law asked me to take a photo of a goose visiting his pond. I shot 23 pictures. He, um, only wanted one.

But I don’t think painters take pictures for the same reasons as everyone else. We are always looking for a visual stimulus, but not necessarily photographic perfection.