Ever have a moment where you’re out with your camera and you think to yourself that there isn’t anything to photograph? I’ve had my moments in the past where this thought has crossed my mind, but over the years such notions have disappeared from my thought process. There is always something to photograph. Always!
Enter my world of nerdy thoughts… zero. The number zero.
Did you ever stop to think how abstract a concept zero is? Mathematicians didn’t start using the number zero as we do today until the 9th century in India (if you believe Wikipedia). The Babylonians, Greeks and other great cultures didn’t think to use zero as both a place holder and as a number. The question always came back to how can nothing be something?
Why is zero of relevance to me as a photographer? Zero is important because it shows that there is something even from nothing. The only limitation in seeing this concept is one’s thinking. If you’re out with your camera and you think there is nothing to photograph think of the number zero. Nothing is something and if you look hard enough you’ll see that “nothing” was merely your inability to see “something”. There is always something to photograph, the trick is to see subjects and to know how to take photos in different lighting scenarios.
Joshua Trees (Yucca brevifolia) - Death Valley National Park, California
Photo Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 8-15mm f/4 fisheye at 8mm, f/16, ISO 200 at 1/160 sec
[tags]photography, Death Valley, National Park, Joshua Trees, Yucca brevifolia, zero, nothing[/tags]
Very true Jim, though it is difficult to keep the creative juices flowing the longer you go on. I’m going through this right now and pretty much burned out of shooting So Cal scenic and travel stuff so I’m thinking this could only lead to new directions for my work.