On the Way Home
During semester breaks I have a bit more time to focus my attention on taking photographs. My creative juices shift from attempting to devise interesting ways to teach stative verbs and gerunds to attempting to frame the world in all its unfamiliarity. Once the semester starts, however, my photography slowly starts to fade, collecting digital dust on 2TB hard drives and Lord-only-knows which server farm that hosts my Lightroom files. My website and other creative projects, such as music making take a back seat as I focus on my teaching, mostly only snapping shots on the weekends, which recently has turned into quite The Weekend Report with my good friend David Goeb.
Despite how tired I may be after a day of teaching, I still maintain the practice of taking a handful of shots every evening on my walk home from the station. I usually follow the same route, passing the local bike shop, park, bank and supermarket. The Hankyu Line recently changed its timetable and I will occasionally alight one stop earlier for an extra 15 minutes or so of attempting to capture life. I often come home empty handed. The light can be challenging to work with at this time of day and my mind can be exhausted from engaging inside the classroom all day. Thus, neither my thoughts nor my photography are at their proverbial sharpest.
However, I find some sort of magic with each click, click, click of the shutter which keeps me optimistic and persistent in this practice. And just sometimes I will snag something that I think will be worth looking back on. It is my hope and goal to continue this practice until I can no longer press the shutter or the simple act of stopping time in rectangular fashion no longer thrills me. I recently read somewhere that it is probably better to write your goals down and share them with someone. Here we go.
