Camaraderie

The Palouse region

Photography, particularly landscape work can be a lonely place. Too often we as photographers get to a popular spot and splinter away. Especially as we are looking for that individual shot, something that makes us stand out from the noise.

With that comes a feeling of protectionism, a resistance to sharing our techniques, methods, settings and locations.

Take the shot above for example. Shot at sunset in the Palouse region of Washington state in the Northwest USA, the parking lot was full of tripods and massive zooms. Yet there was barely any conversation between strangers.

We are all brought together by a shared passion, we should be building from one another, sharing and pushing our creativity.

Which brings me to kindness in photography.

Lunch time on the day of this shot I got myself bogged on a dirt road. Driving along, I spotted what I thought would be a great composition, pulled off the road, turned around and went back. Turning onto a dirt road, I travelled about 20 metres before the traction control lost it, beeping at me incessantly. Opening the door to the car found my sunk about 6cm’s into the mud, in a front wheel drive car with sports tyres.

In a nutshell, I was stuffed. Case in point, there is still residual mud on my boots. As I was preparing myself for the long walk back into town, trying to think of the cost of the tow, a stranger had seen my predicament, turned around, came back and after some creative thinking, got me towed out and on my way.

What has this got to do with photography? Everything. Look after each other out there.Teach, help, learn and don’t be afraid to share your technical knowledge.

If it wasn’t for a random act of kindness, I’d still be stuck in the mud.