A friend from my time traveling abroad who is well aware of my love of photography sends me links and videos all the time on photographers or things of interest. Last month he sent me the YouTube video called The Life of a Photograph by Sam Abell.
Sam was a National Geographic Photographer who is originally from Ohio making his work even more interesting to this Ohio native. His talk was incredibly interesting to me, and while I wish I could say I learned something great and groundbreaking the truth is a lot of what he says I can see in my work when I was learning to make a good photograph.
I didn’t have the same level of photographic education that he had. My family while supportive wasn’t supportive to the degree he was, there isn’t even a family passion to grow on as he had or even a family love of travel as a means to teach your kids. We had very different childhoods yet I could see myself in aspects of his talk, I could envision my journey being similar. I am not a National Geographic photographer because my path diverged from my own interests but for many, the photographer is the dream.
What I especially love about this talk is Sam talks about how long it takes to make the image, and that he kept the mess up and failed images to use as examples. In my culling processes, I have never thought to keep the bad to show what it takes to get to the good. But it is something to appreciate here as he gives us a glimpse into timing and patience as a means to capturing the decisive moment.