It’s a stunning misty day in Katoomba this morning. A few of my Master Class students have stayed after this weeks block for a few days of socialising and photography. Yesterday we explored the Leura Garden Festival. I found my favourite dogwood trees and was lost in them for hours. Each year, because of the different weather patterns, and climate change, the gardens are always so different. It was a day in a feast of colour, which I snapped gleefully with my phone. I shot Monochrome with my favourite camera and lens. Despite all my experiments with various so called better cameras, I constantly return to my micro four thirds Olympus and my beloved Voigtlander 25mm lens.
Today it’s misty in Katoomba and the even smaller handful of remaining students are joyfully ensconced in playing with the magical light. After a workshop is always worth scheduling in time to play with any new found motivation or techniques without pressure. It’s a time to reflect and implement new thoughts and work.
My astrologer recommend looking at where I was at eleven years ago, so I have been blissfully looking through older work at that time. Cyan was two going on three. Here he is blissfully playing in the autumn leaves for my photograph. It’s a few days into my first experience with mirrorless and micro four thirds cameras. I won an Olympus EPL-1. I turned the settings to square, and have never looked back. It was a revelation. As was seeing my composition in Monochrome before pressing the shutter.
Eleven years ago I was still in my job at TAFE nsw and was contemplating my first Master Class. I am going to be running another one in blocks in 2021. It is so rewarding. Do you know I had tears twice this week as students revealed how much the course had effected their lives. How much they had grown. I can always see it in their work, but when they describe it with heartfelt emotions, it is something else. It moved me to tears of happiness and joy. It’s moments like those that make me know, deep in my heart, that teaching photography is what I am meant to be doing. Mentoring photographers is my calling. I feel blessed to have stumbled into it. Having spent my life preparing for this, unbeknown to me.
Cyan in Hyde Park. Photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2019