Port of Cros de Cagnes and photo club, a return
Wait a sec., a feeling of déjà vu
More than a year ago, after spending some time with a photo club in my area, I decided to leave it altogether because I didn't find what I was looking for. Good decision and totally appropriate for the time being and the context. I will save you the details, but last week I finally went back to see how things had changed. And they did! New direction, new members, and some new recipes for the meetings. I was quite surprised and happy to see those changes. And many of the people I met there last year were still members, recognised me and welcomed me with open harms. This is great and I plan to attend the meeting by joining the club again. Only idiots don't change their minds.. ;-)
But not only the club has changed I think.. Maybe I did change also. You see, originally I joined the club because I had just moved to France and thought it could be a great opportunity to meet people with the same passion (photography) and make friends. Apparently this is not automatic (Silly me. Relationships are NEVER automatic. And real friendship is rare, it takes time to build, it requires investment in time and energy, and above all it must come naturally. Sometimes it's better to be alone than with an incompatible person), as with anything personal and social. It's invisible and subtile most of the time. That's exactly what happened. I seriously think I am more receptive and available, even prepared to give without any expectations to receive in return. Yes, I think that's it. If only I had listened to my friend Mark who said I might not get a lot from it (receive) but could certainly help other (give). How true. I've learned something from this experience: if you have no expectations, persevere and keep an open mind, things will develop by themselves. When it doesn't work, do it again. The importance of repetition.
My 2 cents on the 50 pounds of writing post
Jessica Jewell wrote something interesting about "repetition" on the Academic workflows on a Mac blog. She referred to another article on the topic of mastery. There is one line in her text that I would like to share with you:
"Mastery comes not from one great idea but from doing and re-doing."
It reaches back on to something I wrote about repetition not so long ago on March 8th, 2014 titled Write everyday, Shoot everyday. I explained how repetition can be applied to just about anything we do, this time it was for writing and photography. Today, repetition takes the form of "retry" because that is exactly what I did for the photo club, I tried again and to my surprise it's working for me.
One rock, two hits
When I left home last week to visit the photo club I thought it would be interesting to get there in advance and shoot in the area. The place is located in Port of Cros de Cagnes, a place I visited quite often and even spent a lot of time shooting the fishermen and their early morning activities (If you are interested by this topic you can look here to see what I've been doing there on the shore and on the boat). That's another example of the effect of repetition. I know this area but I discover something new every time I go. And this time was no exception. The shot I'm sharing with you today is a typical scenery of that Port. The water was calm and reflective, almost looked like thick oil.
So by going there that evening I went through two repetitions: joining the club (For your info the club I'm talking about is called IMAGES ET EXPRESSIONS) again and shooting in the port one more time. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing is a waste of time, only one more experience to build up from. A friend of mine keeps repeating (!) that we are the sum of our experiences. Great saying and totally true.
Good Light!
Norm
© Normand Primeau