Walkabout is a term dating to the pastoral era in which Aboriginal Australians were employed on cattle stations. It is considered to be “a time of reflection of the soul, a return to one’s roots and family ancestry, a joyous revisit to vistas, creeks and waterholes. A time of balance to harmonize with the sounds and sights of the great land of Australia.” —edited from Wikipedia
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“I could walk a mile in your shoes, but I already know they’re just as uncomfortable as mine. Let’s walk next to each other instead…” ―
I’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating, I think that the best way to improve your aesthetic and technical photographic skills is to practice.
One way, not the only way, to do that:
Here’s a suggestion: Try to photograph something. at least, once each week. It can be anything! The point of the exercise is not to create masterpieces but to help you get to a point where you don’t have to think about how to operate your camera and lens, you’ll just shoot it. And when you do, you will know that you will have, at least, captured something that looks interesting.
These day I’ve been trying to take a PhotoWalk every week including a series of walks I did around McCabe Meadows while with trying to sort out different types of infrared conversions for producing the best, truest black and white results. Another walk through the Meadows was about taking a deep dive into evaluating a specific lens’s sharpness.
In the past, when I lived in a semi-rural community North of Denver I used to take a two-mile walk each day. More often than not I would bring along a camera and make a few pictures. Early on in my daily walk I would pass by this tire propped up against a tree at a local farm. Following my own advice on this subject, I wouldn’t trespass on private property and instead stood on the side of the road carefully dodging traffic to make this shot. (No sidewalks!) I made a shot similar to this many times and never got tired of doing it, much like the multiple images I made of my very first photograph.
How I made this photograph: This image, that I call Walkabout, with no disrespect to native Australians, is one that sticks in my head from the 13 years I made those daily walks. It is one of the first photographs I made with a Canon EOS 1D Mark II that I was testing for Shutterbug at the time and was made during a walk that took me past this farm that has been the subject of many other photographs.
During this walk, I shot both JPEG and RAW files. When I launched Canon’s DPP software and opened this file I was stunned by its color and sharpness. “Wow” I said to myself, “these RAW files are awesome.” That’s when I realized I was looking at a JPEG and became even more impressed. Keeping in mind that this was just an 8.2-megapixel camera. The image was captured with an EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens at 16mm with a Program mode exposure of 1/320 sec at f/9 and ISO 200.
PS: For fans of film photography: My video Why Film, Why Now is available on my YouTube channel, Joe Farace’s Videos, and features a look at my reasons and philosophy about why I’m currently interested in film photography. If you would like to send me any kind of 35mm film or other film photography gear for me to review or or appear in one of my YouTube videos, send me an email via CONTACT and I’ll get back to you with a shipping address.