When your employer sends you to interesting places around the globe it's difficult not to record the beauty for your mind's eye. My Lazy Safari informally started many years ago but didn't come into its own life until recently. Ironically after traveling the world the catalyst for formalizing the Lazy Safari was my friend Bill Reaves but right here in my own hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado. We would both walk the grounds at work and visually search the fields on each side of this city bound building. Bill has always had a great eye for detail. He became my spotter. I would take my camera and we would both try and photograph all the animals we could see. For a location in the middle of the city our corporate building had a robust amount of animals. We encountered Fox, Deer, Rabbits, Coyotes, and Hawks. Animals are elusive and so the challenge was to get an image of these wild critters. Later my goal was to get a spectacular image instead of a mere snapshot of some fast moving wildlife.

Since we are exploring the Lazy Safari let's look at the many attributes that absolutely roar when creating the best photographs. Let's look at these attributes metaphorically as animals on our safari. Hopefully you have all the best attributes of these Safari animals. Becoming just one of them leads to problems. If you gather the best skills from each you will be an unstoppable photographer.

 

Intellectual:

PROS

The intellectual side of things is the condor. The condor is pragmatic and shrewd about all the rules and knowledge of any discipline. Few animals are more adept at surviving the harsh environments and implementing self-preservation. The condor has adapted to every aspect of life necessary even if spectators don't look at it and think its beauty is captivating. It's important to gain a slow build up of classical knowledge like the reciprocity law for instance. This is where light exposure in photography equals the Intensity multiplied by the Time (E= I x T) . This rule can feel counter intuitive when changing all the dials on the camera. This means that a proper exposure provided by ƒ8 and 1/250 sec will give the same results as ƒ11 and 1/125 sec. If one choice of settings provides proper exposure, then the others will as well if the numbers follow each other.

CONS (the Morrison effect)

Becoming a condor starts when people fall victim to what I call "technical seduction". One huge pitfall of all artistic endeavors with any creative output is technical-seduction. It occurs when someone wants to create a beautiful picture. They get the equipment. They study the books. They tweak every button and knob associated with the equipment. The very next thing you know the creative side of their brain has quit receiving messages. The ego of technical know-how is telling them that anything they produce is brilliant. They can now quote formulas by heart and recite the most arcane rules of the trade. The process has become more important than the reason the process was invented or learned. All hail the process and seeking technical peer acceptance! What were we doing again? This effect is where trying to feel important outweighs the idea of getting to the final goal. Oh yeah, we were trying to create some pleasing photographs. Now how can that person with a lesser camera or lesser knowledge take a better picture than the norm? Its key to remember that any process was originally invented to accomplish an objective!

 

Physical:

PROS

Endurance is a trait that will serve you well in photography. These are the traits of the mighty lion. Those animals staying around their own den can only bring in so much reward before they have to go out hunting the exotic. The most interesting images are usually of objects or angles we don't normally see. Climbing to the top of buildings, mountains, and other radical places makes many images outstanding. If you are desiring the ultimate sunrise shot, then this means that getting up early is a must. This all takes stamina. Those pictures that fall into the "low lying fruit" category may not require much physicality. But you will notice everyone travels out and gets the exact same subject matter in their photographs. Talk about boring.

CONS

The lion is a dominant personality. The problem with the lion is that the adventure is more alluring than the photograph taking itself. It's true that your long haul may be a rare opportunity or require specialized equipment for where you are going. You will need all of your strength to haul this load. You will be admired but talk about exhausting! The lion in us is up for anyting and can't have full control or going out photographing turns into a thrill seeking adventure. The lion is more of a strong cat than a planner. It is true that when you know you are going somewhere exotic it's best to take everything you own. Leaving decent equipment behind is risky because it may be exactly what you needed. However, if left unchecked the lion in us can wear us out if not tamed because the adventure becomes the main focus..

 

 

Financial:

PROS

Enter the domain of the ram. When you have money you are a hard charger. Moving up and down the steep cliffs of any hobby are much easier with financial resources. The larger the pocketbook the bigger and better the equipment. Let's not down play the importance of great equipment. Some lenses on cameras can be upward of eighty thousand dollars. Elaborate cameras can be more than several thousand dollars just for the body. When it comes to extremely fine-tuned equipment you get what you pay for.

CONS

Rams can swap out equipment like humans change socks. Having few financial limitations means one can get bored quickly with what they already have. The minute an improvement on a camera or upgrade on a popular piece of equipment gets release the ram is waiting in line. Ignore the fact that the ram didn't fully become proficient at the last piece of equipment.

Simply traveling to an interesting location can be a drain on the wallet. If you stay overnight in a town and drive to a unique location the image can suddenly cost you a couple hundred dollars in hotel, extra gas and other expenses. Moreover, you can be assured things will get expensive if you want to travel around the world for that ultimate scenic shot. The question then becomes, what is that image worth emotionally or in monetary return?

 

Temporal:

PROS

So you have all the time in the world? When you are the chipmunk you don't have to wait for the exact instance when that hiker can give you treats. You can loiter till probability is on your side. The exact photograph you have in your mind may take time and perhaps even multiple attempts. Time can be just like gold when it comes to giving you opportunity. Many photography journeys are an instance in time that will never happen again. There are still other journeys that are so common they are yawn worthy. How do you tell them apart? You really can't and that is the magic of good timing. Friends of mine have photographed trees in scenes that took your breath away. Later when they returned to refine the images and take them with a better camera the trees were gone. The trees had been cut down since the last time they inspired the photograph. There are many more examples but knowing when you are capturing something special will seldom feel different from the common picture session. Timing is everything and yet something most of us don't have unless we intentionally carve it from our busy schedules.

CONS

Like anyone with too much time on ones hands, the chipmunk loses motivation to do anything but shake an occasional tourist down for food. When given too much time the chipmunk in us tends to put off till tomorrow what we could have done today. Also we become the chipmunk incidentally when our lives slow down, we retire, or we lose our jobs. These changes in life usually mean the financial side to us can only use what resources we already have. Time and money have always been of similar value. Extra time has to be capitalized upon or it turns to waste.

 

Opportunity (Luck) :

PROS:

Rabbit's feet are supposed to be lucky but it's hard to feel that way. It's difficult to distinguish between a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and getting lost down endless rabbit holes taking mediocre photographs with little gain. When the hard work of preparedness finally meets opportunity will you take the chance and stretch your resources? What if there is a hint that this night fall may be the most interesting eclipse with the best weather ever? Perhaps this evening may be a beautiful wedding to remember? You'll need to commit the labor, time, and money to snare the image of opportunity. That gut feeling that this trip may be worth the effort, time and money is usually right.

CONS

If you've been hard nibbled on a few too many times as the rabbit you may be reluctant to take the gamble of an opportunity photo session. You've grabbed your camera bag and ran out the door in the past. After all the hard work however, the images captured weren't that fascinating. This time there is the feeling that regardless of what events occurred that there will be another opportunity.

 

 

Creativity:

PROS

Creativity is the elegance and subtlety of the hawk. When you see the hawk you don't think of ultimate strength or speed given the entire wild kingdom.  Yet the hawk has few worries even though it is small in size.  What you don’t see is the functionality despite looking pretty and not muscular.  Hawks cover entire continents in one season.  Creativity is an element that is hard to measure but one of the most important aspects of great photography.  Creative types throw ideas into mental buckets to categorize the world just like everyone else.  However creatives aren’t afraid to pour one bucket of thought into another that has nothing to do with the first.  This lack of worry regarding humiliation is the subtlety that makes creative types look small like the hawk. But it also gives them the strength to extend their ideas and move across whole continents with ideas. Most would agree that innovative, whimsical ideas of how we see the world are the visuals that stick with each of us for a lifetime. Good creativity captures the viewer's imagination and helps us race with the clouds.

CONS

While creativity may be graceful it more closely resembles a gazelle if it’s missing the classical disciplines and intellect. Random artistic ideas are more like an animal running around without the needed classic knowledge and at least one goal.  Everyone has met a creative person who creates incredible works but neither shares them nor knows fully how to express themselves in public.

 

Emotional:

PROS

The monkey in us wants to feel emotional. Since the objective of every image is to tell a story or convey information it is bound to be biased by how the photographer feels regarding the image. These emotions severely influence the information conveyed. The image is meant to draw the audience inward and make them feel something about the image and what, when, where, why, or how it was taken. To this day there isn't a quicker way to pull other people through time and space as letting them look through a good photographer's eyes by way of an image. The ability to make the audience linger with intrigue is a skill. Many images captured by reporters during some of our most trying times of war still resonate in many of our minds. Emotionally moving images can make us smile or even bring tears to our eyes.

CONS

Emotions can blindfold a photographer's ability to evaluate the worth of an image. Conceptual photography brings out feelings in the photographer just from the location or experience of where they took the image. Later they severely value the image based on those feelings alone. Those feelings don't translate and so the audience is left wondering what was so terrific about the image? Photographing someone super interesting might leave one with the feeling of that person rather than the visual given by the image. If you have ever put an image away and brought it back out months or years later to rediscover it anew you are aware of this phenomena. Leaving images stored away for a while and then coming back with "cold" and judgmental eyes is the best way to get around being the monkey.

 

 

Archiving:

PROS

Finally you find yourself absorbing all the positive attributes of our safari animals. The last question is how are your squirrel skills? To be the squirrel you have to save all those nuts for winter. If you are a prolific photographer be prepared to continually buy larger and larger hard drive space to store those digital nuts we call photographs. Even if you are not a pack rat there are some good reasons to store these images. Unlike photograph negatives you may find yourself able to fix up those old digital images. I never stop being amazed at how much I learn each year. Photographs that I was set on throwing away later became gems. That is to say after you learn new ways of processing digital images; you may be able to bring many images back from the depths of the darkest squirrel tree. Digital processing tools are becoming fancier each year to help as well.

CONS

Squirrels seldom know when to stop storing nuts they won't eat. This becomes evident when one's computer hard drive is full of images never to be viewed by anyone again. Squirrels tend to keep even the horribly blurry images photographed on the last vacation. Let's face it if you happen to be that squirrel then those blurry images were hopelessly lost at the moment of photographing. They are ruined despite many who are in denial. Throw out the really blurry images but give the over exposed, under exposed, and noisy images another fighting chance in the future.

 

 

 

 

In summary you will want to suppress the bad traits in the cons column of your animal-side and boost your pros. At any one time you may not be able to conjure all the best traits. After all, when do any of us have endless time or money? It's perhaps more important to realize how critical these factors are in our photo-Journey and not let them slip by if given a chance. Take advantage of your opportunities and appreciate when others are sharing a part of their world.