the right balance

biking itself is not the most important thing when going with the kids. this bog did not offer the frog spawn we were hoping to find, but the 2nd fallen tree was good for taking off the shoes and balancing over the water (the 1st broke under the weight of the testing father…).

finding the right balance also in photography is a permanent challenge for me. balancing the wishes and possibilities and coming to an equilibrium that is nirvana and not tedium means clearly weighing realistic opportunities, personal skills and wishful thinking. my goal of doing more landscape photography – last year i started photographing a nearby canyon – had slight compatibility issues with the family. getting up at sunday 05:00 yielded a decidedly negative reaction from the affected wife, somewhat understandable taking into account the workload. but instead photographing people, something i had ruled out because of an apparent lack of communication skills, yielded good results. Interestingly enough not communicating in my mother tongue – and not in the mother tongue of my counterparts – was easier than similar attempts earlier at home. and now i am trying to translate this back…

a term that i found as important as balance is ‘carpe diem’. envisioning images, open-eyedly perceiving light and moods means less procrastinating, as every moment offers different opportunities. the balance here is not to overstate own mission goals but to equate with other requirements. same i try to teach my daughters, but teaching by example sometimes is hard.