Just Put the Camera Down
It has been a little longer then I would like since my last post I just recently came back from a short vacation in San Antonio. On every trip I take I like to take my camera along. Funny thing is I never end up taking many pictures. I actually thought about this more during this trip because of a few comments I have heard people make in regards to Graphic Designers. I can’t recall who said this but it was at a design conference I had gone to,”Graphic designers take pictures of everything, we collect them in a digital piggy bank of sorts to be pulled out when ever we need inspiration”. However, I feel this is not me at all…I rarely take pictures at all. I was a little troubled by this…how could I be a good designer if I don’t do one of the things good designers are “supposed to” do?
So once again as I am packing my bags to go on this trip I look at the camera and remember this quote. I tell myself, “this time it will be different.” In goes the camera and off we go to San Antonio. After checking into the hotel and getting settled we went for a walk along the riverwalk. I picked up my camera and off I go to take as many pictures as I could. Things started off well but quickly began to tapper off as I lost interest. That night we watched a show that featured music and dancing from many of the cultures that helped shape San Antonio. There was amazing guitar player and beautiful dancers well into the evening. I sat there for probably the first half of the show messing with the camera looking for “good shots” tweaking the camera settings and so on. The whole experience was some what hollow and mechanical. Then my wife said to me, “why don’t you just put the camera down and enjoy the show”. The rest of the evening was great and I didn’t touch the camera again for the rest of our trip.
So does this make me a bad designer? I don’t think so. I find inspiration in everyday life from the amazing to the mondane. Part of the reason the rest of my trip was so great was I was LIVING IN THE MOMENT. It didn’t matter if the lighting was right or if I could have only snapped the photo a second or two sooner. I was free to take it all in. Not just what was on my little 2 inch camera screen but everything. The sites, the sounds, and smells all became more apparent and I appreciated them that much more. Sure, I saw plenty of picture worthy things but I didn’t have the need to capture them because experiencing them far surpassed that. I think my next trip I might leave the camera at home all together.
