Night adventures
There’s something uniquely enchanting about night photography. Even in a small country town, night photography offers a world of creative possibilities.The world transforms into a canvas of dark shadows and lit pockets of interest. Empty spaces that speak of some scene about to unfold, or a scene just missed by my roving gaze.
For years I have admired the magical qualities of night photography by others. It is my personal holy grail of skills to learn and to develop. I haven’t felt able to go near it until recently. I wouldn’t say I had a fear of failure as such, because I fail most days I go out with a camera and know this is just part of the learning curve. No, I’d say it is more a fear of disappointment that I might fail so greatly that I give up too soon.
Eventually I had to just pick up a camera, head out into the night and start shooting to see if maybe, there is a glimmer of something there. And I do see a glimmer. In some ways, this post is like sharing my sketch book of not-yet images. Photos that help me learn, show me places and framing to come back to and try again. And again.
Most importantly, after several years of “significant challenges” and shall we say, “obstacles”, heading out into the night with my cameras is a gesture of trying something new. Of being someone new—or perhaps a ghost of an idea of someone I hope to become over time. With practice. Life changes, (I am well aware, as are many people of course), but I can also change, and learn to be in a world different to the one I used to know. Photography is, for me, a way to stay afloat, a way to be in a world that I didn’t understand my place in for a time. Night photography is the fairyland that exists at the back of the wardrobe. Maybe you relate to this experience of feeling a new world open up, one filled with a bit of wonder and lots of inspiration.
