A man is cutting trees in the forest with a blunt ax. A fellow tells him it would be better if the axe is sharpened. Farmer says, I can’t do that. I haven’t got the time.
Keeping your ax sharp is never a waste of time. As we enter the new year, it is a time to reflect upon those blunt axes we have and never gotten around to sharpen them. I have personally a few that need sharpening and at least one of them is now sharpened. I have been telling my readers that I will get to deal with losing the comment section in my blog’s previous incarnation. The hosting site decided to unilaterally remove the comment section couple of years ago and when I talked to them, they said “take it or leave it”, so I decided to something about it. For the last two years, I tried couple of things but found them to be expensive options, try four figure sums. Thanks to a casual conversation with my friend NM, again something I was aware of, but never connected dots, I found a relatively inexpensive resource and within a week I am done. Now you can add your comments on current and past articles. For about two years, I kept cutting the trees with a blunt ax.
I think this is a classic conundrum of “we always have time to do the same (wrong) thing again and again, and never the time to do it right,” that I faced continually in my career.
I have written a few articles in the last year talking about how my friends pushed me to do hiking on a weekly basis. Their push, nay nudge started about year and a half ago and we kept doing the same set of trails over the time – cutting the trees with a blunt ax. In the last 4 months they started pushing my limits, for they are in a far better shape, in many aspects, I might add, and it was an uphill battle for me. It was either stay with same old 5-6 miles hikes with about 11oo feet cumulative elevation gain or stray into some (new to me) territories of my physical limit. Last month, I went on a hike to Pinnacles National Park, California (Pinnacles National Park (U.S. National Park Service). As far as distance goes, it was just about 6 miles, but it took me almost twice as long (4 hrs 14 min) as my “blunt ax” hikes because the cumulative elevation gain was 1663 feet. Whereas my “blunt ax” hikes would be around 1000 feet cumulative elevation gain.
Another hike that I did really test my physical limitations and mental barriers that I built because of my diabetes was a hike to Afternoon cave, near Mai Chau in Vietnam (Hike to Chieu Cave in Mai Chau, tt. Mai Châu, Vietnam). This was a non-stop climbing about 1200 steps to gain a cumulative elevation of 1200 feet in a short distance of 0.9 miles. The climb was dangerous with uneven and damaged steps, slippery with fallen leaves wet due to rain and I was carrying my camera (around 1 Kg).
Now coming to my photography, I have been more or less been using the blunt ax for the most part of my past and it was not for lack of trying to sharpen my ax. Here is an example of two images. The first one was taken few years ago where I did not spend much time sharpening my ax. I did not know any better, let the model decide on the pose (I was timid and lacked confidence) and not to mention intimidated by the talent of fellow photographers in that shooting session.
After about few attempts at sharpening my ax, and some brilliant suggestions from a fellow photographer on my photography tour of Vietnam, I took the image below in natural light, and the pose was deliberate, lighting was calculated and the pose directed.
I felt much about my skill after capturing this image. I will not argue if you feel my ax sharpening skills need to be improved and you are right. In the above image I did not get the lighting even. The right hand that is exposed to light is far brighter than the face. Ax grinding continues.
Here is another example of a street photography that I took a long time ago, when I knew not what I knew not.
The one below is a street calligrapher near Hoan Kiem lake near old quarters in Hanoi. I was strolling around the lake with my camera, of course, on a down day during my photography tour and I saw this gentleman setting up his calligraphy shop in the late evening to ply his craft to (mainly) tourists. The artist was just setting up his tools of trade, and I was very deliberate and focused on how I want the image to look. The photo was taken with available light (no flash involved) around 8ish pm in the evening. I felt in this case, I have no ax to grind about the image compared to the one above.
Epilog: I am very ambivalent at the present moment about how often I want to keep sharpening my ax. What about effectiveness due to constant sharpening? What about the efficiency of not having down time? The efficacy of sharpening my ax still eludes me. A gopher with claustrophobia, anyone?
I hope your new year has started with a bang. Please be safe and if you are in eastern US, please keep yourselves warm.
Excellent Suri, well done indeed. Beautiful model, and you captured that moment, spot on. The lighting, with her head wear, throwing a lovely shadow on her left cheek.
The gown that she is wearing, love it. Is it a traditional piece or what.
Neil, thank you for your kind words.
Sure, when you do the self critique, sorry, I don’t agree, I am certainly not put off with the light hitting her hand, I found that I was automatically drawn to her head, as to what my comment was on the headgear and shadowing on her cheek. I myself found it a fantastic shot and was certainly never distracted by the light hitting her hand.
Well done is what I think and mean.
Neil, thank you for your observations. A few years ago, I would have been ecstatic to capture such image. Now, I am seeing these minutiae. Hence the ambivalence I talked about in the epilog.
Sur, try a crop by eliminating everything below the necklace and see what you get.
Lovely exposure!
Thank you, Viggy. Will give it a try. Great idea.
This is a very good article.
Thank you, Minh. Much appreciated.
Ahh Sury we all need To sharpen our axes . Me? Im still putting of editing photos . I don’t have time to sit a sharpen and I don’t want to show off a blunt instrument. So with this blog its given me a push to find a quiet corner sit down with my tools and give them a thorough sharpening so I can cut with a sharp tool to show of my best work . Sir you photography is beautiful you captured lovely Lingh in the light to perfection. Keep them tools sharp my friend . One day we shall meet and photo dual once again . Take care 🙂
Jason, good to hear from you, macro maestro. I am glad to nudge you to get the post processing done. It is (long) overdue. Looking forward to that photo duel sooner than later.
Beautiful pictures, Sury. Might be interesting to link sharpening of one’s axe to joy – we have been sharpening our skills to keep our jobs for over 40 years, many times forgetting joy. Should we focus on things that give us joy, something all of us deserve at this stage of life? Like you and photography?
HRU, thank you for the feedback. I agree with your sentiment about giving us joy. As I mentioned in my epilog, I feel it is not as straightforward as it used to be in younger days. Blissfully oblivious used to be the case when I did not know I knew better. As I said in the epilog, honing the skill made me realize the imperfection in lighting. Even as recent as couple of years ago, I would have been on the moon with the shot. Hence, my ambivalence. I know deep down honing skills is desirable, but when is enough? May be a good topic to talk about it over a scotch after a satisfying mean.