Taking Time

Back Home, Tracey Chan, 2012

I'm getting back into the habit of making photographs. My mother says my great grandfather would have been happy about all of this. Perhaps his eyes are weaved into mine, and he is somewhere in those trails of DNA, mixed, switched and twisted. We wonder what his work would look like now, with modern equipment.
From stories told by a friend of my grandfather's, he would be out with his camera, taking his time, slowly and steadily, seeing, looking, and waiting for the right moment to take the shot. I really would have liked to meet him.
I try to be mindful about my photographs, but I am not always successful. It is far too easy with a digital camera to let your mind stray, to be unthinking. Sometimes it works, but mostly it's absolute nonsense. Excess in photography for me is never good. I truly hope to get better at this. On each walk I try to think about Great Gramps and his old clunky camera, his film, his mindfulness and frugality. This seems a simpler and lighter way of creating and living. Deleting the excess feels like freedom.
On that note, Photo Walk TT has been a great chance to practice, meet new people, and get out to new and old places in Trinidad. Join us for the next one if you're around.