Monday, March 10, 2014

Then you arrived, meditative, ironic

Last week I had eight hours of exercise, half of it riding the bicycle and half walking in forests and swamps.

At one point I started thinking why I'm not keen on riding the bicycle otherwise than when commuting to work, but of course the reason is easy to see: one can't use the camera when riding the bicycle. Walking and taking photographs is something I enjoy greatly, and sometimes one achieves almost a meditative state while doing this.

(Posting title is from the poem Hayden by Amaud Jamaul Johnson.)

6 comments:

Martina said...

LOL - same here. I gave up bicycling as a leisure activity almost completely since -- how should I do it? Two meters - stop - take photo. Another meter. Stop again. Take photo.
Hiking is wonderful.
Walking.
Looking around.
Bicycling to me is a nice and good means to get from a to b ... but for leisure: hiking.

Juha Haataja said...

Indeed, walking is just the right speed (cf. with running), and leaves hands free.

During winter (those winters when we have enough snow) I have also tried taken photographs while skiing, but it is a bit inconvenient because of the sticks that get in the way. Otherwise it would be quite ok for taking photographs.

Martina said...

I've only done cross country once or twice in my life - but yes, with a small camera it might work. Better than bicycling on all accounts.

Yesterday after writing my comment and thinking about all this (i.e. how much I love to walk) I wondered if I should do some 3 weeks hiking as a vacation. Nothing spectacular. Just walking. From a (my hometown) to b (where ever one can get to in three weeks). :-)

Juha Haataja said...

Walking from a to b, that sounds good. A bit like John Muir, taking it slow.

I have one in a while thought what I should do after retirement (if that ever happens), and one scenario I find interesting would be to rent a cabin or a cottage near a large enough national park, one that takes at least a day to walk around. Rent the cabin for several months or half a year or even a year, and get to know the place in detail.

And then do the same with another national park, walking across it day after day, week after week, until it is time to move to another place. There are 37 national parks in Finland, so this could take a while...

But this is of course just a case of daydreaming, even though I admit this could be something to really do at some point.

Anonymous said...

First of all: a fine set of landscape images, inline with what I've learned to enjoy: unspectacular, fine details, no exaggeration in color, perspective, lighting. When you compare this with the overstyled popular sunrises/-sets, superwide rocks, cream like water in the creeks, the latter are all to heeavy on the nothing-but-makeup side. But people like to be deceived...

Re. cycling: unsuitable for photographing for me as well. Either I want to cover a distance, or I want to see and photograph. Both is very difficult.

Juha Haataja said...

Anon, thank you, the phrase "nothing-but-makeup" certainly fits a lot of the photographs one sees these days. But there are also other approaches, it is not just one way to see the world.