Rodney Campbell's Blog

“What motivates you to pick up a camera and press that shutter?”.

It’s a question I posed to my Arcanum cohort for a recent snap assignment and it got me thinking – what is it that motivates me?…

Netherworld

I start rummaging through the recesses of my mind and some possibilities do come out, but getting to the core reasons is not so easy…

I think for me one of first things that popped into my head and one of my main reasons is the challenge and drive to improve. A push to tae and produce better work (at least in my own eyes). I’ll get to that later however, first I’ll look at a few other potential candidates…

Moonbeams

Whilst I do take photographs across a very wide range of genre’s I feel my main photographic love is landscape photography. What is it that motivates me to get up at insane times of day or to stay up late at night and to go to remote locations and walk miles over hazardous rough terrain in the dark to take photos?

Sure, the actual visiting of those locations may be reason enough for some. I’ve never really been much of a traveller myself. That deep down desire to go on holidays and visit exotic locations. I know people who it seems live for that, it’s almost like they go to work just so they can travel and they spend their time between in anticipation of the next trip.

For most of my life I’ve never been that way, it’s not that I hate holidays or travel – it’s just never driven me and I never had that insatiable desire to go out and see the world.

These days travel often represents an extra excuse to take the best photos I can of some new (to me) location. However even when I travel with my family I find I have to plan to specifically take some time away to take “my” photos vs the sort of day to day travel photos with the family. So for me the travel and visiting amazing places isn’t the motivator, it’s almost the other way around – the photography motivates the travel. So no smoking gun yet…

Within Landscape photography there are many sub genre’s – including those that represent the bulk of my work – Seascape and Night photography. Even within those broad definitions there may be sub specialities like Long Exposure, Astro, Light Painting and so on. However with landscape photography in general we are often shooting at what might be called abnormal times. We are looking for that most interesting light or the right conditions – which most often coincides with dawn (from an hour before sunrise till just after), evening twilight (from just before sunset till an hour after sunset) or at night.

Getting up and out of a warm bed hours before sunrise so you can get to a location an hour before sunrise is not easy work. So what motivates you to do it?

Alone

It’s actually a really fantastic time to be out there. It’s most often very calm, peaceful and a beautiful time of the day. Watching the world wake up as the darkness slowly shifts to light and the colours and textures of the world slowly reveal themselves. There are generally no crowds, no hustle and bustle, often no people and very few sounds at all. It’s almost like you have the whole planet to yourselves.

Being out there either alone or with just a few other like minded friends is – some could say a semi spiritual experience. So perhaps that is the motivation? You feel like you’re getting to experience the zen of the world as very few people do. And even beyond the sleep deprivation you do feel renewed and recharged.

So I do enjoy that it gets me out seeing the world at this time… However – again – it’s a bonus but not I believe the primary motivator.

So what about the images I create – am I motivated by showing people these fantastic locations in the best way I can? Is the motivation to share beautiful images of these locations most people never get to see or they don’t get to see them in these conditions or in these particular ways? Is it the act of sharing or is it that fleeting reaction of amazement in the viewer enough to motivate the next shot?

I love to share my work as much as anyone, and any accolades are more than nice, but realistically likes and +1’s aren’t going to drive me to press the shutter and take better images. In my case I take the images foremost for myself and they look like they do to please me first. If others like them then that is obviously pleasing but if they don’t, then C’est la vie.

What about other genre’s of photography I shoot, ones that I don’t necessarily feel so passionate about but still take?

Shelter From the Rain

I have over the past almost ten years photographed a lot (hundreds) of school and extracurricular events and activities. I volunteer to go on most school excursions (some up to four days) so that I can help and assist with looking after the children and events. Primarily however my role is seen as the “official” photographer. I document the activities of the children (including my own), catch those candid or special moments and make web galleries for the families to see their children whilst they are away.

It is rewarding work that by all accounts is very much appreciated by those families, to receive what I hope are precious memories and beautiful images of their children. There is that feeling of satisfaction to use what skills I do have for good. To give them photographs and memories they could never take themselves.

Whilst I do, like anyone, enjoy that warm feeling of praise and the satisfaction of a job well done and those small tokens that indicate your work is actually appreciated. I’m certain that is only a small part of what motivates me to photograph.

Down the Rabbit Hole

What about other genre’s I’ve dabbled in – macro, street photography, architectural, lighting and so on?

By nature I’m a very technical and structured personality. With photography I spend time researching new skills and techniques intently and then go out and practice till I feel I’ve perfected (or in reality at least gained a reasonable understanding of) what I’ve learnt.

These learnt techniques are like building blocks of information. Sometimes they are self contained and can be pulled out in the field to assist with “making” the shot. Where they become really interesting is when you can take the separate blocks of technique and combine them in your own unique way to make something new and beautiful.

There’s that sublime feeling when you know you’ve nailed a shot. I can usually tell the moment I’ve hit the shutter without even needing to look at the back of the LCD to chimp the image. I expect it’s the feeling that sports people get when they make “the play”. The “ping” for the golfer when they just know they’ve hit the ball perfectly.

Monolith

Here I think I’m getting closer to what motivates me to shoot. Photography is like an endless source of new discovery for me. There’s always new things to find, new techniques to learn, new genre’s to try, new places to go, new compositions to make, new images to take… Most importantly there’s always room to improve. Just looking at the amazing array of work out there online I never feel like I’ve really mastered anything.

I do feel like I’m improving and getting better each year but I can see this is a lifelong journey and not something I will “master” or “achieve”. The goalposts are always in the distance driving me to strive to get closer.

In this case it’s definitely the journey and not the destination which is the motivator, and what a journey it has been so far, and hopefully will be till the day I can’t…