So, I’ve put a pause on getting the blog up & running, and most of the irons I had in the fire, as baby Carter Frances has come home. I’m lending a hand with toddler wrangling, as Jessie recovers, Leah takes on big sistering, and Nick keeps the barn running.
Still, what better chance to bring out a camera? Here’s a few shot on the fly, with very light editing:
Loved taking a few shots of the Tuesday night adult crew: working at horsemanship, playing with friends.
The image that still resonates is one that I didn’t photograph, but simply saw as I walked back to the house. Two women, each with the car door open, talking across the parking lot, that slow leave taking when you know it’s time to go, and you’re just not quite done. Good stuff.
Jessie, in her second to last week of teaching, before her maternity leave begins:
The whole crew:
Sheila & Iris were in good form:
Robert & Sarah, with Laramie & Skylark:
Katie & Lucy were rocking the grey:
Amelia with my favorite big guy, Ernie:
Here’s Anna on Blade:
Good horses. Good friends. Good night.
Jessie is Jessie Donohue of Donohue Horsemanship and teaches at Silver Spade Ranch, on the west side of the Portland Metro Area.
The photography of people matters because it allows us to look at a moment in the life of another person and see the differences and similarities we share. Acting as both a window and a mirror, the portrait has the power of revelation, showing us something about both the photographers and the subject. -David duChemin
Photographer Chris Orwig has written a book on portraiture called People Pictures. Each chapter explores a theme and ends with a photographic experiment, aimed toward developing the technical, artistic, and relational skills that contribute to authentic portraits.
I’m going to use People Pictures as a road map, giving structure to the next leg of my photographic journey. The Plan: To read the chapters & do the photographic experiments, developing a foundation in the practice of portraiture.
I made these photos of my daughter Jessie in May 2012, and they show both my strength and my weaknesses as a photographer. I see certain moments, moments that sing with life. Sometimes, there’s an alchemy between the light, my position, my camera settings, and the moment. Other times, the moment is overexposed or unintentionally backlit or the gate ends up in focus instead of the horse.
My aim is to grow more skillful at reliably capturing and reflecting what I see, and to become less at the mercy of good photographic fortune.
Onward!
All we have in life, really, are people and moments. The portrait captures both simultaneously, and tells a story about the characters in our lives. It shows a person and a place and a time in which they will never be again. It stops the clock and says, “Look at this person, she matters. This moment matters.” -David duChemin
Portraiture, formal or otherwise, is not a technical pursuit. It’s a relational and aesthetic pursuit achieved through technical means. What Chris (Orwig) teaches is what all great portraitists have always known; that it is assumed you will be growing in excellence in your craft, but that the art is accomplished in the moment you connect with a subject and make a photo that is honest and revealing, not merely representative of the shape of their face and the line of their smile.
-David duChemin
Finding, or waiting for these moments, and making something of beauty and revelation, doesn’t happen accidentally. It comes as we study our subject and our craft with discipline and practice. -David duChemin
Want to follow along in People Pictures?
People Pictures & other books by Chris Orwig
Want to know more about David duChemin?
From his blog: Ten More Ways (To Improve Your Craft)
David duChemin’s work – Trust me, you want to see
Want to learn more about Jessie Donohue & Donohue Horsemanship?
If you’re reading this post close to when it was written, you can see the sidebar Text Widget that still reads “This is a text widget…” I’ve launched my blog well before all my i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.
True confession: I’m sharing photos before I’ve mastered how to use my camera’s manual settings or got Lightroom working on my desktop.
Maybe that’s why these words from Marc Ecko connected with me:
Part of art and creation is iteration and knowing that I’m confident to take that bet on myself.
Just jump in the shit and wet yourself up and try again.
I tell it to my coworkers and staff all the time: I’d rather us get to the vicinity than to the final destination. Let’s just get to the vicinity. Like 70%. I know I’m smart enough and aware enough that we’ll make the delta between 70 and 100%.
This is me jumping in the shit. I’m sharing while I’m still trying to get to the vicinity.
Kids do this instinctively. As we get older, we learn to look ahead, and we can be frozen, waiting to have every piece of the puzzle understood before we even begin. But you can’t actually solve complicated puzzles that way. You solve puzzles by breaking them down. You make things by taking the step in front of you. You learn skills by trying, failing, and trying again, differently. And if you wait until you know it all to start, you’ll never do anything beyond your current possibilities.
Ecko again:
The very thing that make a great entrepreneur is the very thing that makes a great artist. …the tolerance for the messiness of iteration is essential.
Words worth repeating: the tolerance for the messiness of iteration is essential.
Storyteller Ira Glass:
All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple of years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit.
My friends in the horsemanship world know this gap, too. The space between your vision of how you want to move in true unity with your horse, and your clumsy efforts to feel of them, and get them to want to reach back and feel of you… Oh, that’s a familiar space.
We know our work doesn’t have that special thing we want it to have.
My writing and my photographs don’t consistently have that special thing.
But sometimes, there’s a shot that makes my heart beat a little bit fast. Sometimes, there are words that seem to fit what’s in my heart and mind. Like a moment where you and your horse are moving in a way that feels connected in a way you haven’t felt before…
But you only get those moments if you’re willing to spend a lot of time in the gap, in the mess, in the disappointment and frustration, and if it’s with a horse, maybe even in the dirt.
So, this is me, aiming for the vicinity, sending dispatches from the gap.
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Want to see a beautiful 2 minute film by artist Daniel Sax with more words Ira Glass?
Beautiful video by Daniel Sax of Ira Glass on The Taste Gap
Want to hear more from creative entrepreneur Marc Ecko, founder of apparel brand, Ecko? Listen to him on the Chase Jarvis podcast:
Chase Jarvis interview Marc Ecko
Sometimes, I need to remind myself.
Looking for more words that inspire? This quote comes from the Living Creed of the Good Life Project:
Good Life Project – Living Creed
The End and The Beginning. So it is for me.
The end of my horsemanship journey and the beginning of: This. Right. Here. A journey into the world of making and sharing images & words.
Dr. Seuss said “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”
I think our hearts are big enough to hold both. I’ve had moments, maybe out in the barn and seeing someone else riding my big guy Ernie, when my eyes begin to well with tears. And in that very same moment, I can also feel gratitude that Ernie is getting what he needs, and joy in what I got to have.
We can hold it all, if we’re simply willing to be with what is.
I have grieved. But I haven’t agonized. I feel a simple clarity. And I’m grateful for that.
I’ve come to a place of peace, like Moomintroll gazing out over the water, and feel the energy of a new adventure stirring…
Kathy at the Ranch 