Focus

Random photos walking around the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina

I uninstalled the Facebook app from my phone yesterday. It feels good. It’s been a year since we ditched the television. I don’t miss it. When people find out I don’t have a television they look at me like I’m nuts (I’m used to it) and usually ask, “so what do you do?” To which I reply, “anything I want!”

It’s liberating. No more “pokes” in the middle of dinner, no more 7 ½ minutes of commercials waiting for a weather forecast, no more political commentary while getting ready for work, no more 40+ comments about the hurricane that didn’t even come close to you interrupting me at work. When I have time to sit down and look it’ll all be there. In the meantime I can relax and enjoy being in the moment with whatever it is I’ve decided to do. What’s not to like?!

Among the tributes to Steve Jobs over the last few days was this quote, from a 2008 interview but about when he returned to Apple in 1997 to discover that the company was in disarray, suffered from way too many products and lacked focus:

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the 100 other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done.

We spend far too much time today living other peoples’ lives, worrying about what other people think and trying to please other people. Generally we do it in a well-meaning way. We do it because we care, or at least we think we do, or that we should. The reality is, most everyone else is doing the same thing, and they’re too busy to even think about us or notice if we do something nice for them.

My work day is full of distractions, most of them are even work-related. It’s part of the deal and one of the reasons they have to pay us to do the work. If it was fun and easy we would do it for free, right? When I get home, the last thing I want is more distractions. I want quiet time, creative time, time to think, time to breathe.

I recently had a couple of friends over to the house, and one of them had some photographs we made prints of. The photos are really, really nice and they made very nice prints. He appreciated me taking the time to do it. We had a great time, spending a couple of hours talking about and discussing photography. I’d rather do that than just about anything. But if any of us felt like we had to leave to go watch a race, a football game or some talk show, it never would have happened. It’s great to set aside time to do something and actually get to do it without interruption.

When I go out to do my photography, I like to go off by myself or just a small group of friends. Ideally they are friends that think and shoot like I do and will go off on their own and leave me alone to do my thing. I’m happy to do the same for them. I turn the phone off and leave it in the car. Yeah, I know there are tools for my phone that will help me figure out where the sun is or when it’s coming up (although it’s usually pretty easy to tell), depth of field charts that will tell me where to focus, and if I don’t know where I am I can always get directions. But if I have the phone along I get distracted, and then I can’t do what I set out to do.

We’re going to the beach this weekend, and I’m looking forward to sitting in a chair and watching the waves. I’m going to read a couple of books. I’ll probably take some pictures. We’ll go for a walk, probably several a day. Hopefully the distractions will be limited to the occasional swim or lunch break. No phones on the beach. It’s a rule. Could we be doing something else this weekend? Sure, but this is what we’ve decided to do. We could have booked a trip to Vegas, jumped out to wine country for the weekend or maybe even taken a cruise, but we know we’re never going to get to do everything, so we try to pick and choose those things that will best allow us to accomplish whatever we want to accomplish. And sometimes that means sitting my butt in a beach chair for a few days!

Canon’s coming out with a new camera soon and I’m not buying it. Well, I might. But I’m not scouring the rumor sites, breathlessly awaiting any and all speculated details about megapixels or sensor sizes or whether it has a mirror lockup button. I’ve got a camera that works. I actually have several cameras that work, and even the oldest ones are still better at taking photos than I am. I laugh when I see people speculating on the latest lens, or whether a camera that isn’t even out yet will take good pictures. Did the camera you have suddenly stop working? Get out and shoot! Relax and enjoy!

Everyone has to make their own choices, and whenever possible I like to be able to make mine. Being bombarded with distractions makes it difficult to decide what my priorities truly are. We can’t make that decision while we’re being pulled in all directions by what are essentially other peoples’ priorities. The main thing is that, whenever possible, I want to choose. I want to answer e-mail or comment on a photo or “Like” someone’s post. But I don’t have to do it while I’m driving home from work, or eating my lunch or sitting at the beach. When I’m out photographing I want it to be about photography, not distractions. When I’m on vacation I want it to be about the vacation and not about what’s happening on television. Do whatever works for you, and hopefully you can have the freedom and flexibility to do what really matters, once you are able to figure out what that is.

8 thoughts on “Focus”

  1. Nice post Tom. I like the quote from Jobs. It actually applies quite a bit to photography. We are constantly picking our subjects and situations we choose to spend time with, but we are also ruling out hundreds of others. I have often thought about what it would be like with no TV, and do know the time spent there could be more productive, but there are some shows that I gain quite a bit of enjoyment from, so for now I guess it stays.

  2. Love this, ” I actually have several cameras that work, and even the oldest ones are still better at taking photos than I am.” We do have choices, lots of them. So, it’s good to choose those that nurture us, stimulate the creativity within us and offer that to the world. Nice post!!

  3. Excellent post, Tom. As a matter of fact, after I read the first sentence, I removed the FB and Twitter apps from my phone. I’d never had them before February, when I got my iPhone, and find that they are a distraction. Thanks for the idea. 🙂

    As you know, I don’t have a television either. I’ve not had one for 3 years. People are used to it now and don’t ask me about the latest television show, or newscast, except when they forget, momentarily, that I don’t have a TV. However, I just give them a quizzical look and they say: Oh! That’s right. You don’t have a television. I love it.

    Usually, I will turn off my phone, as well, when I’m out shooting unless I’m out of town. I’ll leave it on, just in case someone needs to contact me, but then, I’ll selectively answer calls.

    Again, excellent post! I look forward to more.

    1. Thanks Paul. I had been threatening to remove the app for a while but never quite got around to it. I finally took the plunge because after a recent update I found that whatever it was doing was sucking up my battery, to the point where it wouldn’t stay charged for a work day! I’ve removed Facebook and The Weather Channel apps and now my phone runs for days without a charge.

      Of course just like my cameras I have an “obsolete” Blackberry that probably should be replaced, but it still does what I bought it to do. 🙂

  4. Thank you very much for writing this. I think this approach is the only sane one in life. I appreciate you saying out loud I only wish it was on the front page of the New York Times or broadcast on TV before every football game. If people followed your advice the world would be a calmer, happier place.

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