Reminisce

Bringing the magic back

Why reminisce?

Well, it brings back memories of a time over a decade and a half ago when photography was something magical and alive in me. When I ate, breathed, drank, slept, walked, everythinged photography.

When a Sony DSC-P100 Cyber-shot or a Cyber-Shot DSC-W100 point and shoot sang under the direction of my eye and fingers.

Whether it was 30C+ with 95+ percent humidity…

… or -5C with -15C windchill and snow frozen into ice on the ground…

…it did not matter. I just had to make that photograph.

In the morning…

In the afternoon…

At dusk…

At night…

At midnight.

I was not bound by time.

In the air…

Under the sea…

In the concrete jungle…

In the biological jungle…

No location was too far out of bounds.

And I'd go home, analyze my shoot for the day, noting what worked and what did not work, then make a point of going out the next day to repeat the process. Over and over. It did not matter that I had a simple point and shoot. I worked those cameras totally. Nudging every bit of performance I could from their very limited offerings.

When I discovered the very scaled down manual mode, I was in heaven! You mean I could just change aperture or shutter speed to anything I chose and then make the photograph? That was some momentous revelation! So more experimenting I did.

And then I started sharing my photographs on a blog. And it gained traction. And people loved them. And the comments came through stating I should consider doing it full time. Hmm, what an idea!

After sometime, I realized I had outgrown the point and shoot. I needed to up my game, and so after lots of asking around and reading around and comparing gear specs, I settled on the Nikon D200. That opened up a whole new vista for me to explore. If I was over the moon upon discovering manual mode on the point and shoot, the extended capabilities of the DSLR got me to Mars.

That thought of doing this as a job? Well, my time in the US came to an end. I moved back home to Kenya, and I decided instead of continuing on with my engineering, I would instead set up a photography business. Which turned out pretty okay, giving me enough to live on.

At some point, however, I discovered something. That magic I felt when I first started out was gone. I was not as enthusiastic about photographing any more. I did not reach out for my camera as easily as I did earlier. At times I even had to convince myself to pick it up and photograph something. And I did not know what to do about it. I tried everything, going to different places, getting into macro photography, collaborations... Nothing stuck.

I remember there were periods where I would not touch the camera for months to shoot my own work. The only times I photographed were during client shoots. But I also came to find out that my lack of enthusiasm was affecting that as well. Something had to change. I could not go on like this.

Then 2020 happened. And even the client work I had started drying up. Much of the work I did required travel, but since there was a ban on that, it meant that I now had to rely on something else. Fortunately for me, I had already started working in Data Science, so that ended up being my source of livelihood. Photography had breathed its last in me.

Or so I thought.

Something funny happened earlier this year. I was looking through my archives while searching for something, and I decided to just go through some of the photographs from my point and shoot days.

The more I scrolled through them, the more the excitement from those days started bubbling up in me. The more I started smelling the aromas, hearing the sounds, tasting the foods, feeling the rain drops, seeing the lights that I had captured in those photographs. I instantly got transported to the very moments when I photographed the various things.

That cafe in New York City where I was introduced to fine French dining...

That Guatemalan/El Salvadorian restaurant where the owner knew me by my order and would get it prepared without my uttering a single word the moment I stepped through the door…

That Turkish restaurant in Brookline, Massachusetts that had a mean meats selection…

The Ethiopian restaurant in Sommervile, MA that reminded me of the one in Nairobi…

The splash of bright autumn colours reflected in a pond in Concord Massachusetts...

The freshly fallen snow daintily hanging on twigs and branches on leafless trees...

The late spring rain that glistened the smooth trunks of trees in Boston’s Emerald Necklace...

The summer riot of sound, colour and aroma at a street festival in Little Italy...

The heavy construction machinery at night in downtown Boston...

That all came rushing back at me like a flood. And what joy it elicited in my heart. Such. Great. Joy. Oh how I missed that!

Reminisce.

Photographs from years past, reminding me of a time when photography was magical.

Letting me know that I can still create that magic. That I don't have to hold back.

And what ideas I have! What subjects I want to explore! What mediums I want to experiment with!

Water drops.

Camera obscura.

Wet plate collodion.

And of course, them dudus!

The possibilities are endless!

Here's to keeping that creative magic alive, whatever your art is.

Go forth and create!