For me, photography is an individual thing. In my work, the process of photographing was initially more important than the results. Of course, if I paid close attention to the process, which I did, the results got better. For years I never really finished any photo in post-processing past a certain point, and I have yet to ever print one out, which again points to the “process” of doing it, of looking through the lens and just plain “seeing.” The “seeing” itself through the lens is something I am addicted to, and finer and finer lenses, for me, enhance that experience. I admit that for me this “seeing” is a meditative experience that I enjoy as something in itself. I have tried group shoots, but invariably go off by myself, so that says it all right there.
And I should point out that photography for me is entirely impressionistic, meaning there is no “reality” that is not mixed with my own mind projections. In other words, I am studying, discovering, and “seeing” my own mind when I photograph. There was a time, after I first achieved what I call “clarity of seeing” through photography, that if I wanted to get my mind straight, the only way that was possible was to grab a camera, go out in nature, and peer thought great lenses at miniature words. In fact, after I discovered how to “see,” it took me a year or two to wrestle that “seeing” away from just photography and begin to “see” in other areas of life. But for me, it started with photography and great lenses, that “seeing.”
