Time for a Change
The changes, they are coming. I have been wrestling with the thought that, after three years, my trips into the Nashville entertainment district are beginning to feel like “the same old same old”. I guess that should not come as a surprise. Since the start of the pandemic, except for occasional trips to NYC, I have spent almost all of my time shooting in Nashville’s approximately three-square block entertainment district in a certain sort of way.
What I have not been able to decide after three years is whether the limitations I feel are my limitations or the place’s limitations. My photographic hero, Saul Leiter, shot most of his work within two blocks of where he lived in East Village in NYC. Thinking about that, 3 square blocks seems pretty spacious. But then the issue came up in Vineet Vohra’s workshop. One of the participants had worked with Vineet for a long time. She specializes in environmental street portraits. She has been recognized internationally. During the pandemic she began to photograph one particular place in NYC that is richly diverse in characters. Oddly, most of her images were taken in a particular place within that particular place. Vineet observed that it was time for her to move on. I certainly understood how painful that observation was to her. But you know? She has moved on. Her new work is a breath of fresh air and it reminds me just how talented she is as a photographer.
Getting back to Nashville, I am pretty convinced I have shot every possible background in the entertainment district, although just last week, I found a new one. I have shot most modes of transportation, including the motorcycles, the pedal bikes, the party buses and the horse drawn carriages. I have been through football seasons, ice hockey seasons, NASCAR seasons and the holidays like St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween. I have taken pictures, lots of pictures, of musicians going to work and working. I have taken pictures of the crowds and individuals who are going to concerts. I have taken pictures of groups celebrating birthdays, upcoming weddings, divorces, and turning 21 or 30 or 40. I have photographed people laughing, being sad, or angry. I imagine that will continue, but I also know it cannot always be in the same certain way.
While this is a new background, this image falls solidly in my traditional “certain way” category. I classify it as a pretty picture. I like pretty pictures. I will always be taking these.
When I first came to Nashville, it was quite a revelation in how the city lived up to its name, the Music City. We have live music playing everywhere. For example, at any given time there are three or more musicians singing in various venues in the airport. My church has broken away from the Episcopal hymnal which, even as a child, I understood to be the most torturous music collection ever. I just never know who or what people will be singing or playing each week. A Taco Bell, fast food for heaven’s sake, on 2nd Avenue has live entertainment.
This is truly how I framed the project, Nashville Playing. This was taken on Father’s Day in 2019. The ubiquitous musician is playing in the background.
I had it in my mind that I would do a project called Nashville Playing, which would explore how people experience the wide musical opportunities in Nashville. When the pandemic arrived, early in the project, the opportunity became limited to the entertainment district. There were no more fairs or festivals which I thought would be the underpinning for the project. They restarted tentatively last year, but they were shadows of themselves compared to previous years. I am happy to report that this year they have rebounded. It has been great fun attending them. Step one in the change is going to a wider range of venues. I plan to keep looking for new opportunities. For example, maybe I can take street photography in Centennial Park. I at least need to try.
Step two is changing up the type of photography I am taking. I have gotten very interested in ICM, intention camera movement. I think it is a bit of a photography fad and, as with all fads, I am late to the game. These days, every time I am out, I spend a little time practicing ICM. It is wildly fun for me and certainly not the “same old same old”. It is not clear to me that I can produce what I consider to be a significant photo, but I don’t know that it matters.
I have been struggling with getting distracting white areas in the frame on ICM pictures. It is also really difficult for me to get horizontal picutres. This represents some improvement on these issues.
The most promising opportunity for taking photos that are different from my past work comes compliments of my camera, the Ricoh GRiii. It has an uncommon exposure setting, which is called highlight weighted metering. This dedicated metering mode will prevent blown out highlights at all costs. While it can be used for getting a wide dynamic range, I am allowing it to crush the shadows to produce moody pictures. Certainly, you can use spot metering or exposure compensation to do the same thing, but this exposure setting sure makes it easier. The easier something is for me, the more likely I am going to do it.
This was taken with the highlight exposure priority. It added some drama in the sky
I feel like I have a plan. I went to the Nashville Fair last weekend. Next weekend I plan to attend the Celebrate Nashville festival. When I go into the city, I do the best I can to find and take photos that differ from my usual certain sort of way.