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Slowly working through the backlog of interviewees – for those that have responded, please note that I will get to you soon.
This time around we learn a little more about Bobbie aka @bobbie.
My journey: Old photo albums tell me I was taking photos as a teenager but my first solid memory of having my own camera was when my father bought me a small Olympus that shot ½ frame slides (film was expensive!) before I took off to spend a year in Israel after high school. It was very tricky because I had to guestimate what I was shooting and everything came out as a vignette.
The next big change occurred in 2005 while visiting the Alhambra with a digital camera. I realized that I wasn’t limited by the expense of film, developing and printing and let myself shoot the same thing from different angles. It was exciting!
I’m a teacher educator and have been our program’s unofficial photographer since its beginning. One of our workshops is called “Languages of learning” and one option for the students is photography. In 2012, I wasn’t teaching in that time slot and with the instructor’s permission, sat alongside my students and took my first (short) photography class. The students thought it was strange at first but I didn’t.
I’m about to start my second year-long class with the same teacher in our college’s wonderful “Retirees’ College” (I’m not but no one cares). Beside a “formal” class, I do a lot of looking at other people’s photos, reading and experimenting on my own of course but the class is important because I can get the feedback I desperately need and the interaction with everyone else is just fun.
Where I live: I live on a kibbutz in Israel on the border of the Gaza Strip. For me, this photo I took of the anemones between the double security fence around the kibbutz symbolizes both the complexity of life here and the optimism we have for peaceful co-existence.
https://goo.gl/photos/5wBmNHC24CHogAmMA
My photography now: I enjoy photographing people: working, interacting, on the street – anything not posed; machinery, tools, non-household physical objects (I don’t know why – maybe it’s my roots as an organizational psychologist); things that strike me as out of place and anything else that catches my eye.
I use a Canon G15. My conditions for a camera are something I can carry in a pocketbook. I know myself – if it means extra equipment, the camera won’t be with me in the end. Since I don’t use a flash or tripod either that means there are things I won’t be able to do (although I’m always trying to stretch the limits of the camera and myself).
Where to from here: My personal project at the moment is teaching myself how to do some post-processing. I opened Lightroom for the first time a week ago and have been using the Internet to figure out the basics so I can start playing with it. Up to now, except for cropping and slight lighting adjustments, it’s been “what I see is what you get”.
I consider myself very much an amateur and at the moment, I’m at a point where technically, I feel things are going backwards rather than forward but I hope it’s just a passing stage. Among many others, one of my biggest challenges is knowing why I want to take a picture before I take it rather than looking at it afterwards and realizing why I took it (or not).
A lot of my inspiration and admiration is connected to the “classics” who knew how to tell human stories so convincingly: Robert Capa, Dorothea Lange, Henri Cartier-Bresson. I’m also inspired by many of my fellow participants here on Light Stalking. Thanks you all! -
Bobby, you and I are on the same mission, perhaps described as purposeful photography. Who would guess that for some of us, the hardest question to answer is “why am I taking this picture?”
I love the picture you chose to link. Very poignant. Thank you for sharing some of your life journey. I do love our international community.
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Bobby, I was so glad to see it was you we would be learning about. Reading more in depth about you has been an eye opener. I’m always glad to see your smiling face and hear your uplifting and encouraging words to me when you’re able to join in. I want to thank you for that because they help me move along my path.
Your comment re knowing why you’re taking a photo before shooting is interesting. When it comes to art and photography, it’s instinctual for me. If it “speaks” to me, I shoot it. Glad you’re going to be experimenting with post processing because that could be as much fun as the actual shooting.
Looking forward to seeing more of your work … the one posted here has a deep meaning. My wish is for peaceful coexistence for you and for all the troubled world.
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Happy to read about you Bobby. I’ve never seen your photos so far and I wonder if you could put a link with Flick’r or other website to see your work. It sounds quite exciting to be living at such a place during such a time and I am sure occasions abound to be making meaningful photography.
Happy to hear about you and good luck with the teaching.
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Thanks all. I can’t believe that I’ve been so busy lately that I only noticed this today (my photo on the weekly challenge screen finally caught my eye).
Sorry Irene, I don’t have a website with my work but I will try to post more in the forums.
Glad to be part of this very friendly, encouraging and talented community!
Bobbie -
Very nice to hear about you Bobbie. Your journey with lightroom I’m sure will be a good one. I too am trying to recognise why I’m drawn to take given photos. I envy those who instantly understand the significance of what they are witnessing. Keep posting and commenting and giving us your point of view.
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Hello, Bobbie
Fascinating reading about you.
There’s such a Zen quality to the photo of the anemones between fences.
Reminds of the koan about the man between a precipice and a tiger who suddenly spots a juicy strawberry and forgets about the dangers – how delicious the fruit.
We’re only limited by our perceptions.
Always nice learning from you.
Thanks for sharing. -
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