In the months since writing my last post, my gear list has remained mostly the same. The Voiglander Bessa-T and Color-Skopar 35mm f2.5 have left, providing some of the funding for the Pentax K-1 Mark II. It has been a busy time outside of my photography hobby, and it culminated in a move to a new city – albeit one which I’ve spent a fair amount of time in – Seattle.
Seattle is the setting for many of my street photographs. Living in the Pacific Northwest means that there are a limited number of larger cities, and Seattle is the largest, one of the most visually interesting, and one with a considerable amount of tourism, which provides decent-sized crowds throughout much of the year and helps me blend in on the street with a camera.
Of course, it’s an adjustment moving from a small town to the city. The traffic patterns, public transit, local rules and administrative details of setting up residency in a new city and state take a significant amount of time and attention. When one is ready to make a life change, however, these hurdles can be approached with a useful amount of energy, which would otherwise be funneled into anxiety. That’s a lesson I think I have learned (to an extent) over the past few years: anxiety is often energy waiting to be put into a more constructive form. We are fortunate when the time is right to channel that energy into something which has a positive effect on our life.
Seattle will provide me the opportunity to focus on street photography to a greater degree than previously possible. Small towns aren’t impossible for street projects, but the faster pace, larger geography and population of a bigger city provides an unending stream of opportunity. One’s native small town, on the other hand, demands some purposeful planning for more definite projects in order for me to remain engaged. I also have some street photography project ideas in mind which I’ll take the opportunity to explore more as time is available. Since I am still working a full-time job in the city, the darker pacific northwestern winter evenings provide limited opportunity, but make for some excellent rain-slicked, atmospheric cityscape shots.
The Sprocket Docket 