Why is The Grass Always Greener Somewhere Else?
TweetNature photographers are notorious for having wanderlust, no matter whether it makes business sense or not.
I’m guilty!
I live in the mountains of Oregon and am close to lots of great locations to photograph and while home, I mostly work in my office.
When I think of my next big photo adventure I am not thinking of anywhere around here.
Instead it is the scenery in some other photographer’s neighborhood that’s the draw. Utah, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, the Dakotas, New England in the fall, anywhere but where I live. There is nothing wrong with where I live. There’s plenty of natural beauty.
Many people think I am lucky to live here. There has never been a question about that.
Photographers from out of state post on their blogs about a great shooting trip they made to Oregon.
When I make it to their state I do the same.
Why do nature photographers have the need to leave home and go to territory different, less familiar?
I bet if I took a poll the majority of answers today are that the experience of photographing some unknown location is more reason than thea business decision of adding those locations to their stock files.
Are we the modern day explorers?
Christopher Columbus, the pioneers, mountain men, and histories great explorers all had something within that pushed them to the unknown.
Do I feel today the way they also felt in their time?
Are we today’s explorers, modern day adventurers, like the mountain men or pioneers of the past?
Instead of seeking beaver pelts or free land to homestead and insure our existence, we seek and harvest photographs to insure as well, our existence.
While the early explorers ventured far to expand the influence of mankind, today nature photographers might venture far to show mankind the need to slow or halt that expansion.
So are we all explorers looking to serve our fellow man in a similar way?
In this tough economy, one that has been hard on photographers, I have been forced like many others, to make careful choices about where I go and what I shoot.
The result now is that I am as restless as I ever have been.
Why?
I guess home is NOT always where the heart….or the camera….is!
How is your wanderlust? Please leave a comment.
Related Posts: What is Success in Nature Photography?
Good post.
I too like to go far and wide for my photography. I live in northern Arizona, which contains a lifetime of shooting locations. But I have also gone to California, Nevada, England, Ireland, Germany, Holland and Denmark. I would be happy to spend the rest of my life shooting only Arizona, but if I have the chance to travel, I’m out the door so fast you’d swear that The Flash just ran by.
Have Fun,
Jeff
Photographers are very often image collectors. But beyond that, nature photographers thrive on “different”; it scratches our creative itch and excercises our photographic brains. (For those who brand themselves as “travel photographers”, variety is a requirement.)
Personally, I am feeling overwhelmed by the variety of subjects to photograph within 200 miles of home.
Nice blog. . .
Personally, I like to travel and shoot to explore new places. I love the adventure. I live in the Puget Sound area, and love to shoot around home too. . .
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