Something Original

"Show us something in a way we haven't seen before or introduce us to a new idea."  That seems to be the goal and the destruction of all photographers.  How do you show people something new when we've been freezing moments in time using obsucuras, pinhole cameras, silver and chalk reactions, film photography, and digital photography since several hundred years B.C.!?  More importantly, how do you come up with a new idea?  All the good ideas must have been thought of by now.

I am not original and I don't claim to be.  I love taking pictures so that I can make memories permanent for myself and to share what I see with others.  On this day in Yosemite National Park, sitting among the crowd on Glacier Point looking across the Valley at Half Dome, I realized I wanted a picture of the people instead of the sunset.  So, while everyone was pointing their cameras at the exact same mountain, and the exact same image of that mountain was being engraved into their memory cards, I was taking a picture of them.  Is that original or what?

Yosemite is a beautiful place and because it is so grand, people flock to it in droves.  One would think that the mystery of this place would be lost knowing that so many people from the past, the present, and the future have and will experience it, but that's not the case.  When there during the tourist season, Yosemite becomes a bustling city in the mountains rather than a peaceful get-away.  But instead of this being a huge damper on the trip, the people there from around the world reveling in the same natural beauties produce a common understanding of respect and wonder that lingers everywhere.  As the first place in the United States to gain Federal protection, it is inspiring to see that it is still appreciated. Places like Yosemite are responsible for ensuring that people care for and protect our wild lands around the world, even if one has to wait in line to see a Horsetail Falls, float down the Merced River, or ascend Half Dome. This photograph, for me, is a representation of that reality.  You may travel to the most awe-inspiring places on earth, but their popularity forces you to take a back seat in an experience that should only ever have a front row.  Still, the event is magnificent no matter how many times it has been experienced before.  The same is true of new ideas.  And besides, "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."


-Albert Einstein