But here's the downside with the Zoo. You can only go so many times before you've seen everything. You can take a billion pictures of the animals every time you go. The same animals. They don't change. And you'll get the benefit of dirty glass and fences inevitably obstructing the view. Lets just say, if I want a good picture of this animal, I'll have better luck taking a stroll through the Internet than the Zoo. And I won't have a billion bad pictures of the same animals clobbering up my hard drive.
All this to say, here I am, at the Zoo, with my camera limp on my shoulder. I have no urge to take pictures whatsoever. I see nothing I want to capture. My shoulders are slumped, my motivation is zero. My imagination, that normally I have to try not to drown in, has decided to take a vacation and leave me to wallow in lazy boredom. And yes, I'm am very sad to admit that I am at the Zoo and bored, with a rebel T3i dangling at my side.
My dear mother, on the other hand, has her camera up, and is taking pictures of everything she sees. I try not to be irritated with her overly excited picture taking. Am I jealous? Probably. But I won't admit that. I'll just tell myself it's useless to take pictures at the Zoo. I say I wouldn't be able to take any really good pictures that I wouldn't be able to find on the internet. I mean, why waste the space on my card.
Wow, my lack of creativity and motivation is disgusting. And I call myself a photographer. I'm a lazy loser is what I am.
This is pathetic.
Well . . . thankfully I have a mother who never ceases to be photo happy. She notices my lack of picture snapping, and quickly says we should have a contest. A creativity contest. We would take the most creative pictures we could, choose our best ten, then have someone judge. I was all for it.
Snap, snap, snap. Mom has an advantage, cause her camera can zoom. I have an advantage, cause my camera is . . . well, let just say that, it wouldn't be too fair to compare our pictures in quality. Now that I have a reason to pick my camera up from swinging uselessly on my shoulder, I'm feeling a little more motivated. My creativity and imagination start waking up. The gears are turning. My eyes shooting here and there, noticing things. Color, lighting, and little things like flowers and the way the suns makes its petals glow. I don't take too many pictures, maybe cause I'm picky, or maybe cause I'm just not in the mood. I can't get that spark of photography motivation to come back all at once. But in the end, I leave the Zoo with a few pictures on my card.
The Zoo trip was fun, and I got good practice with lighting and noticing the little things. Not just the obvious: the giant elephant. Anyway, I left with more experience and some good memories. I am especially grateful for the experience of dealing with boredom. I don't ever get bored; I don't let myself. But sometimes it can sneak up on me. I'm realizing that. It's easy to just look around when I'm bored, and not really see anything. That's why I love photography, it forces me to see, to look with a purpose. And when I do that, when I look and see and notice, then I can appreciate God's creation more fully. I'm so grateful to have that opportunity.
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