The Way To Work (TWTW)
It was the year 1999/2000. I had just bought my first “proper” camera - a Canon EOS 500N with a kit lens. I was churning out photo after photo on Kodak negative film. Great memories of being an exchange student in Germany captured forever. I even captured the four seasons at the same location near my apartment. However, something was missing. Occasionally I captured a nice looking image which came back as a print from the local and ubiquitous labs back then in Europe. I eventually moved to Munich for my first job and had decent access to the internet. The dot.com bubble was in full bloom. And a few interesting photography forums were popping up. One such forum was naturephotographersnetwork aka NPN. This opened up access to the thoughts and process of many good photographers like Guy Tal, Jerry Greer and Tony Kuyper to name a few.
I got to know that my skill set is limited and a better way to improve is pick up a project that I can easily work on and improve my craft or the technical aspect of photography first. All the really good photographers on this forum used to visit cool places such as the US national parks which was really difficult for me. I think it was in one of the discussion forums where a book by Freeman Patterson Photography of natural things was being discussed. I picked up a copy and really liked the idea of photographing everything in a 1 mile radius. I kept thinking about what project I can work on myself. As I was riding my bicycle everyday to work (German Aerospace Centre in Munich) I thought of photographing things I see on the way. Initially it was everything from macro to landscape to people. Within a few months I decided to focus on landscape photography.
The journey of the past 20 years can be divided into four parts. First and foremost came mastering the technical aspects of the film photography. Fortunately being an engineer helped and it took very little time to understand this aspect. Then I focussed on the composition. I spent a couple of years honing this skill. Eventually trusting myself with just a walk without a camera and imagining how the same place may look in different light. After that came the steal like an artist from the masters. And the last is still work in progress. Finding my own voice. I find it very rewarding to shoot the same familiar scene in different ligts or moods. As I’ve been working on this project for a long time, of course, my equipment has changed. However, it is a means to an end.
Crooked Tree
Some trees become your friends. You say hi to them during your walks, check on them every once in a while. And of course, try to create a memorable portrait of them. This crooked tree is that friend during my TWTW. You can see various versions I have tried over the years, here. Some on large format color and black-white and some on various digital cameras. This I like the best. The late autumn colors and fog created the atmosphere and soft light gives that feeling as if the tree is lit from within.
Read more here - https://prashantkhapane.com/randomthoughts/the-way-to-work
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Fuji GFX-R with 50mm Fujinon GF lens. Crooked Tree. Click to view larger.