Playing with others

Lately I have been involved with several groups of photographers.  Its been very interesting and a learning experience. this has ranged from the casual  hiking trip with a few friends and their camera phones to  hosting several communities of photographers.

As I have stated before ultimately the art of photography is a solitary  effort in its intial phases.  The ability to clear distractions and capture the moment clearly and with enough interest takes focus. That focus does not occur when your mind is racing around.  However seeing how other people's minds move and the things that they key in on does help you to  see outside of your range.

 The thing that I have to remember is let go of trying to lecture or  mentor others without them first asking for the assistance.  While it is true you can help them sometimes to  get the type of image that they want the  problem is it takes you out of where you need to be.  While you are doing the exercise your focus is on helping and not on seeing. So many times with  the problem with not being creative is that you fail to see something that is so obviously there.

 You join these groups for various reasons and it helps to understand what you need from the group. Then  you have to  realize that those interests may not be shared by other members of the group. So this means you  need to be willing to give far more than you initially thought you would need to . This  is not only ok, its a good thing.  The payback is not always immediate and not apparent. However  this irritation in our routine maybe the sand we need to make our photographic pearl.