As I found I was turning March into a street photography month, I tried to expand into some more abstract and portrait forms. Cristian Zuniga, a friend of mine, became my first subject. He may not know it, but I think he missed his called. Without much direction he clearly knows he looks good on camera and works his suave appearance easily.
The month has very little shot on iPhone. The wide-angle of the lens made it too much a challenge but a few iPhone photographs made their way in. I have decided over the past few years not to go with an iPhone plus model, the iPhone 7 Plus's telephoto lens would have been great this month. I spent most of the month with my Olympus in hand; on it, a 25mm or 45mm lens.
Most of this is irrelevant in the end. A Year in Photographs isn't about getting 365 absolutely incredible shots. This project is about learning about myself, pushing my skills, becoming more aware of the surrounding, and finding new skills.
In 2011, I directed a film in France, Karate-do: The Peaceful Way. While the film discussed many social, political, and philosophical ideas, one of the prospects that really has influenced my view of focus, in the sense of vision, comes from "soft eyes."
We, so much of our time, focus our vision so acutely, we don't see around us. In the film, it is discussed in the method of how one can not afford to have pinpoint focus when confronted by an opponent. Our vision is both central, what our eyes are focused on, and peripheral, that which we see but not focused. Our central vision is extraordinarily important to our visual acuity but many times we ignore their peripheral vision.
This month, at least in the sense of street photography, has taught me using "soft eyes" to break the barrier between central and peripheral vision is massively important as to not miss the moment of a great photo. I would at times walk around without paying attention to my central vision and allow myself to become more aware of my surrounding; the advantage to street photography.
Having found this month extremely enlightening, March's theme of 'people' will not be ending. While April will be centralized around Minimalism, March has given me inspiration to continue 'people' as a subject in a special branch of this project.
If you're interested in being a subject for photographing, I'd love to hear from you. I'm interested in all genres of photographing people. I think we could have some fun! Feel free to contact me.
Three months in and can't wait to see where the rest of the year takes me.
Up next: April – Minimalism