I believe that Kaizen, a Japanese business philosophy that believes in continuous improvement of working practices and personal efficiency, is the cornerstone of any occupation. This is the main reason I constantly take classes and workshops to improve my photography skills and try to get a better understanding about my development as a person who has an inner desire to record the outside world using a photo camera.
During our recent experience at the Palm Springs Photo Festival (I started writing about it last week), not only did I learn from the workshop’s leader, a renowned photographer Roger Ballen, who came from South Africa to teach this class, but also from other participants and teachers, as well. One of them, a well-known photographer, Melvin Sokolsky, pointed out that you cannot learn how to become a good photographer unless you have a gift, which we call talent (in my view, this reflects all artistic or creative endeavors). According to him, you either have it or not. I’ve seen it again and again while looking at the photography work of other photographers. At the Festival, there were 20 workshops to choose from. I ended up taking “Success in Fine Art Photography.” This was not my first choice, since I’m only starting to see evolvement of my photo-work as an art form. Besides, after checking Roger Ballen’s photography online, I was not initially interested, but I’m glad I made this choice. During the workshop with eleven participants, we shared our own photo images, as well as Roger’s creative art. We also had discussions about what it takes to be an artist and how to make a living doing what your heart desires.
Two days were spent photographing around Palm Springs. Before our trip, we visited antique stores where we had to choose props, which we would use for our creative process. My eyes caught two items – a beautiful silk scarf from India, a present for my wife, and a framed sign with the word LOVE written on it. The first hour and a half trip was to the Coachella Movie Ranch, which offered us an opportunity to use our creativity to create and photograph our masterpiece. On the second day we drove to another unusual destination – The Salton Sea. This place has an interesting history and certain areas which have abandoned houses filled with junk and graffiti. Some of them, like the Bombay Beach Estate, became a destination for artists. I used both locations to create images which incorporated my LOVE sign. Someone in the group, seeing me all the time with LOVE sign and listening to my remarks about life, called me “Mr. Lover”. I liked the idea, and upon my return, I decided to create a Facebook and Instagram page called “MannyKaganLove”. I hope this idea will catch on, and others will start sharing their LOVE images as well. When we focus on love, many other issues in our lives might disappear.
P.S.
I would love to share my love with you In the four images I photographed during the trip.
Enjoy and Share with A Friend.
