Apples and preconceptions

An evening shot after a long time. This was the last one. I have been eyeing these apples since yesterday. And after returning from office, put them all together and a single click. Done!

I don't know what it's been about these days. I haven't been overwhelmingly busy and yet time has mostly passed by in a breeze. Bits of reading, bits of playing, some thinking, some laughter, it's all been there. (As an afterthought, not enough silence, perhaps.) The good weather has made its way into most things. But everything changes. And often we don't know how.

Picking up from the Garry Winogrand quote, I do have preconceptions in my approach to photography. Like in the shot above. The idea wasn't formed days in advance though, or even hours. It would probably be minutes at most. When subjects aren't dynamic, I have more time to think and create an idea in my head before taking the shot. But when it comes to street photography, it's at most in seconds. It then becomes more about the subjects than about me, since it's mostly my subconscious that's able to react in the tiny pockets of time available.

I understand the usefulness of preconceptions, but solely working out of them, one misses the pleasures of the journey, going against the very reasons why we are drawn towards creating art. I like to suspend my judgment till as late as possible, simply because it would give me maximum time to see.

Though my approach is usually flexible, adjusting to the nature of subjects, it has been more fulfilling trying to shoot a rapidly changing scene where an arrangement will perhaps never reappear. Perhaps it even gives me an impression I've cheated time, having captured something it tried stealing away.