OP – The Blog



Free your mind and your soul will follow. Have you ever given that expression much thought? What if you had the ability to empty your mind of all those daily worries, forgot about the bills, forgot about a work schedule, let go of the family matters, would you be a different person? Would you think and act differently? How would it affect you? Would you become a better person or not? If you are a photographer, and I am assuming that you are if you are reading this, what if you applied this theory to your photography? Free your mind and your soul will follow. Drop the 35 pounds of equipment, the laptops, hard drives, and everything and any thing that you carry out into the field. Would you become a better photographer?

Your first response might be to think that I am completely off of my rocker. Right? But I think that I am on to something. If you read my personal blog and follow me on Facebook you will already know that on occasion I dump all of my regular professional equipment to carry only one tool with me. That tool is actually becoming more and more complex, but it is still only one tool and it fits in my pocket. It is my iPhone. Mere ounces of the weight, especially in comparison to the pro gear. There is something so liberating by carrying only this one device to create. In a way, as you free your mind from the cumbersome gear, you begin to create images, which you may have never even seen before, that surround you on a daily basis.

This one simplistic tool has become an opening into a different world of composing. I shoot anything and everything that catches my eye. This concept has multiple effects for the creative mindset. For one, think of the brain as a muscle, exercise it often and it becomes stronger and you will continually build on those past experiences. In addition, if you can experience and photograph different and varying subjects, you begin to realize that the art of composition, exposure, and concept flows through all bodies and disciplines of photography. Now you can become a creative powerhouse instead of limiting your photographic genre to just a single style or element. Diversity breeds long term survival and development. You become more focused and trained to create.

Now when the 35 pounds of gear comes back into play for a high dollar client or for any other photographic project, the brain is on. Your vision contains clarity and strength because it hasn’t been dormant for a week, a month or even a year. All this due to a simple little phone in your pocket allowing to you to pursue your vision on a daily, hourly or minute by minute basis. Try it sometime. As you can see I take my iPhone everywhere; mountain biking, skiing, hiking, essentially it is on me every minute of every day. I have even photographed projects exclusively on my iPhone. Now, with my new iPhone 4, I have a larger image size and even HD video. The world has effectively become my oyster.