Can you take too many photos?

Feeling blue, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

One of the comments to this blog hinted that perhaps I'm taking too many photos per day, some kind of pre-editing would be useful. I have been thinking about this a bit, and now I feel that perhaps I should take even more photos, not less.

But this is a personal thing, not for everyone. (And perhaps it is relevant to admit that sometimes I do feel that I have gone overboard, for example yesterday when I took almost 400 photos.)

But what I feel is that I have become blind to the surrounding world, and photography is a way of opening the eyes, especially concerning the usual and the everyday. For example, I'm quite familiar with the Lammaslampi lake here nearby, but I haven't paid much attention to it, except occasionally. Now I feel that it has a meaning, in a photographic sense, and perhaps even potential for great photographs.

In fact, I'm starting to believe that you can find great photographs everywhere, wherever. As they say of spiders, a great photograph is just one meter away from you.

Also, the practice lessens the hesitation I tend to have when doing photography. Many good moments have passed when I have been pondering. Now I try to just shoot, more like a reflex than thinking.

This is my training regiment, a bit like in the different kind of shooting training the USA developed during the Vietnam war. Before that time, most soldier did not fire their weapons. But nowadays the firing is developed into automation, so there is never any hesitation.

Well, come to think of it, this other type of shooting has a real nasty connotation, so perhaps I should not make any comparisons. Maybe only this: the videogames of today take over any natural hesitation people may have towards violence. This is - I feel - definitely one possible factor in the kind of school shooting we had at Kauhajoki school recently here in Finland.

But photography is different. It is a way of approaching beauty and meaning without hesitation. It is opening eyes, not shutting them.

The photo here rather nicely illustrates my feelings today. A bit blue, with some light of hope mixed in.

The photo was taken today at the Meilahti area in Helsinki. This area is not so familiar to me, so there are a lot of novel things to explore. I feel that I could spend weeks and months exploring with my camera.