How To Have An Affinity With Nature

As a photographer and a storyteller, I have the incredible opportunity to share my insights with you. But how can I know what you are feeling while reading my stories or just glancing at my images? Sometimes the feedback I get is that you are receiving a positive message or that my photos make you smile. Can I expect more? After all, it has taken a lot of my time, discipline and motivation week after week to send you my images, since I’ve been sending them to you over the last four years. Why should I put so much energy in working on my stories and books? The answer came during our recent trip to The Sea Ranch, that I wrote about last week. On our relaxing trip, I was reading Mikkel Aaland’s book “The Sword of Heaven”. In the introduction of Part Three he writes, “Things that have affinity in their inmost natures seek one another”. I found a number of definitions online for the word affinity – “a feeling of closeness and understanding that someone has for another person because of their similar qualities, ideas.” “A relationship or resemblance in structure between species that suggests a common origin.” Reading this I remembered a message from one of my photography teachers, a well-known National Geographic Photographer, Sam Abel. He shared a lesson with us that he received from his father, who was also a photographer – “Be ready and wait, the object will appear in front of you”. I’m familiar with this concept in the mortgage business as well. Sometimes I do not see how to solve the challenging circumstances in one of my clients’ loan requests, right away. I put their file aside and then spontaneously, a solution comes, but only if there is an affinity between me and my client. But there is yet another important element, which is summarized in the Russian proverb, which I have mentioned previously in my writing – “The prey runs towards its hunter”. One needs to be a hunter, in other words, to have an affinity with its prey, the hunter needs to be ready for the encounter.

The famous French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson called it the “decisive moment”. When a photographer with a camera in his hands is ready, the subject will appear. You can see the remarkable results in his photography books.

Back home I am reading Mikkel Aaland’s latest book “The River in My Background.” There he describes his experience in Norway during the winter. “Beauty surrounds me, when just moment ago all was mundane and ordinary. All I have to do is slow down and look and the marvel of it will be revealed.”

As a photographer I am learning how to develop an affinity with the environments that I photograph. This is how I was able to create the images that became a part of my forthcoming photography book, “42 Encounters in San Francisco”. The book is being printed and you will soon be able to hold it in your hands, and enjoy reading and smiling on every page. Enjoy and Share.

P.S. The images of the fox that I captured in The Sea Ranch are a good example of the allegory of the hunter and the prey. When was the last time that you saw a fox in the wild, peeing and yawning before settling down for a nap? I was able to take those shots because in that moment, I had an affinity with nature. Fortunately for the fox, I was shooting with my pocket camera, not a rifle.

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