The world is a noisy place, sometimes. Our workplaces are full of overheard telephone conversations, unattended cell phones, conference calls in “speaker phone voice” from an open cubicle with multiple participants, casual chatter between cube-neighbors. People leave televisions blaring in an empty room that is so loud it hurts my ears, and there’s no one there watching it. We go out for a meal to a restaurant filled with televisions AND loud music in a room with concrete floors and high ceilings that creates “atmosphere.” Actually it creates a headache. Heck, spend a couple of hours on the Blue Ridge Parkway and count the number of loud, noisy cars and motorcycles that roar by in a given period of time. “OUT ENJOYING THE PEACE AND QUIET ON YOUR HARLEY, HUH? WHAT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER MY RADIO.” Why does a motorcycle even NEED a radio? HUH? Nevermind.
Kathy & I seek quiet. We avoid noise whenever possible. We sometimes sit at home in the evenings and the only sound is the clicking of one OF our clocks. Lovely. No television, no music, and hopefully no neighbor’s barking dogs. When I sit at my computer I listen to an acoustic guitar channel on Pandora. Softly. When we think about traveling we think in terms of places we can go to get away from noise, at least man-made noise. Ocean sounds, waterfalls, wind? Those are no problem. We’ve even learned how to find the quiet places on a cruise ship, which is no small feat when sailing with 3 or 4 thousand of our closest friends.
The thing I love about photography is that it takes me to quiet places. Even in the middle of a city, it gets my mind and attention away from the sounds and they become nothing more than background. I shut all that noise out and just think about enjoying my time with my camera. That’s the reason I don’t generally photograph with groups. I have a lot of good friends that are photographers, and while hanging out with a few of them at a time is great fun, much more than that and it’s hard to find the quiet place I look for when I’m with my camera.
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Like these photos? Maiden voyage of the new machine. I made them a little larger than usual – click on them to make them bigger.
Amen, brother! There’s a book that I think you’d like: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a world that can’t stop talking. She addresses many of the things that you mentioned at the beginning of your post. I’ve opted to work from home full time, now. It’s much better than going into the office and listening to ‘speaker phone voice’, ‘cell phone voice’, ‘radios’, and countless conversations throughout the day. It’s very distracting and unproductive.
Congratulations on the arrival of your new family member. 🙂 I see that you are taking it for a spin in the ‘higher elevations’ of ISO.
Thanks, Paul. I’ve heard of that book and actually have it on my Wish List with Amazon.
I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised by the high ISO performance but really didn’t expect to use it much considering how I usually shoot, but I was glad to have tested it out. Just last night I used the camera to shoot an event and really liked the higher shutter speeds I was able to use by shooting at a higher ISO. And knowing what it could do have me the confidence to use it. I never would have attempted to shoot at 3200 with one of my older cameras.
The air looks mighty clear up there on the ISO mountain top. Very nice indeed!
I’m with you looking for the quiet places.
Thanks, Earl. I’ve got a lot more testing to do, but it looks pretty sweet so far! Headed for the mountains of VA this weekend and looking forward to some quiet.
I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately for those of us that enjoy the quiet, most people seem to have no desire for it. My biggest pet peeve – leaf blowers.
With high ISO performance like that I guess there will be a few more tripods on eBay.
Too funny, Dale! I don’t think I’ll be giving my tripod up any time soon, but you might be right.
We won’t get started on leaf blowers!
I so agree with you and have a post I’m working on about this very subject. I like the peace and quiet, no radio or television. I think my work also contributes to the desire for quiet as once I’m off the plane it is quiet I seek. I also think there are many who do not like quiet because they do not like what thoughts enter in their minds. I hear people tell me they can’t handle the quiet.
Monte, I definitely think our photography reflects not only what we love but what we seek. Looking forward to your post!