PHOTOGRAPHER’S JOURNEY.com

Every year the Smithsonian Institution holds its annual kite festival on the Washington DC Mall.

If you’ve never seen it, it’s really extraordinary. Probably a thousand kites in the air (although I certainly didn’t count them). I decided it might make a great photo project, but when I got there, I struggled.
I brought with me a 28-135mm lens which I thought would be more than adequate. After all — it wasn’t shooting the kites in the air that interested me. It was the *people* who were flying those kites. But somehow, as I shot, I became more and more frustrated. It was a cloudy day — nice, flat lighting. And it was windy — perfect for kites. But everywhere I looked I couldn’t quite capture what I thought was the “Americana” of the moment. It truly felt like a magical day for me. But when I viewed the images I was getting on the nice slick screen on the back of my Canon EOS 30D, blah. Actually it was more like blah, blah, blah.
I was getting frustrated and figured I’d move on to some other location. But it was disappointing. Then, just as I turned to head somewhere else, I glanced over my right shoulder and what I happened to see was the image you see above. I was, by mere happenstance, perfectly alighted with the Washington Monument mid-way down the Mall. And right between me and that monument, was a child and his wagon (with another kid sprawled out in the dirt behind him, if you’ll notice!). It was beautiful and I knew immediately that it was something special.
Of course, I tweaked it some in “the digital darkroom.” But overall, what you see is what it looked like. Or, at least, what it looked like to me. And that is really the point with photography. It’s not about realism — although there are times where it should be. It is about capturing, and conveying to others, an observation of what you see. In a sense, all photographers are “journalists” since that is exactly what we do.
Now, in my case, since I work as a professional journalist in my real job, that approach may come naturally to me. In fact, my sister Kerry McFarland, an outstanding photographer in her own right whose work I hope to showcase on this site in the future, pointed out that each of the images I shot that day told a story. That is especially true with this one. But until she pointed it out, I hadn’t really thought about it. And she went on to say that the picture seemed to reflect my background as a journalist. Wow. Hadn’t thought about that either.
But she’s right. My best photographs do tell a story. And when you think about it, that’s true of nearly all the best photography. But each of us brings who we are to the table every time we click the shutter. And it’s worth stopping now and then to consider just how our backgrounds — personally and professionally — are impacting the photographs we take.
All the technical mastery and skills aside, photography is ultimately a poignantly simple choice. A choice in where we point the camera. A choice in when we click the shutter. And that choice is different for each of us.

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