Scott Dickerson

Blog

  • Real smiles naturally

    Great, ok, now say cheese, smile and look into the camera. Umm, not quite, how about a real smile? Can you show me a real smile? hmm, how about I throw a snowball in your face that should help.

    Trying to talk a smile out of a model isn’t much fun and doesn’t usually work anyhow. That’s one more reason why I love to photograph people in the outdoors doing things they really enjoy. The smiles that you see on a good sledding hill, after a great surf session, while kitesurfing, after a sick snowboard jump, etc., these are the priceless grins. Surfers often call this stoke. When viewing these real smiling moments I find a grin forming on my face too. It’s only natural to smile back at them, you can feel the pleasure, the thrill, the good times.

    Here’s a little collection of photos with those smiles that come naturally in the great outdoors.

  • Passion in photography part 2

    Passion in photography part 2

    In my last post, part 1, I went on about how it can be difficult to actually separate your passions from the many things you like in life. Some signs of NOT following your passions reveal themselves in obvious ways.  If you are working on something (a career, towards a goal, a project) and the work feels like a drudgery, mustering the enthusiasm or energy for the work is difficult,  or the work is the means to the goal only. I’d venture to suggest that you are probably not pursuing something you are truly passionate about.

    Q: How do you know if you are passionate about a thing?

    A 1: The energy, commitment, enthusiasm, and desire to pursue the passion wells up within you spontaneously without effort on your part. In other words, it’s easier to follow this thing than it would be to ignore or avoid it. When you turn away it gnaws at your insides. In the morning when you are laying comfortably in bed the desire for it makes you throw the covers off. I don’t have to try and get excited about photography, I just am. I don’t try to muster the enthusiasm to do a photo shoot, instead there seems to be a boundless supply of motivating desire for it.

    A 2: The pursuit of a passion is satisfying and rewarding in the present moment. According to my definition a passion can not be solely embodied in the future. I think it’s possible to be passionate about reaching a goal, but if you find that the process is not a pleasure then I think it’s time to reconsider. The best way I can explain this is a surfing analogy. For about 10 years I’ve had a vague goal of becoming a skilled surfer, but the first wave I caught was just as fun as the wave yesterday, and if I ever reach this nebulous goal of being ‘skilled’ I don’t expect that I’ll enjoy surfing anymore than I did 10 years ago. That’s because my passion for surfing is not contained solely in the goal of being skilled, my passion is for surfing period. The process, the means towards the goal, is satisfying and rewarding in the present moment.

    There is much more that could be said on this, so let’s look at some photos.  The photos in this post are of a friend and kayak surfer with real passion, Randy Keller. The image at the top shows Randy trying to take his frozen hand out of a frozen glove after a surfing session during a winter storm. Notice the ice covering everything, including his one remaining lens in his glasses. The photos below tell the rest of the story that lead up to the top photo.

    Randy makes it pretty obvious that when a person is following a true passion the endurance or commitment required to overcoming great obstacles is provided. He does not suffer through a session like this, he loves it. I don’t think he particularly enjoys throbbing cold hands and breaking his glasses, but he certainly has a passion for kayak surfing, and lives out a very obvious example of how a passion provides the energy and enthusiasm required for its wholehearted pursuit. The air temp was probably around 10F, it was snowing hard and blowing roughly 30mph. If you are curious about this Randy Keller guy, check out his adventure guiding business – Isuma Guideworks.

  • Passion in Photography part 1

    Passion – An intense desire or enthusiasm for something.

    The word has never sat quite right with me, though, I continually pursue it in my life. I can barely stand to say it, but I am truly passionate about following my passions. As it turns out, I am in the right business, because when it comes to photography I have passion. According to the thesaurus the following words are synonyms for passion: enthusiasm, eagerness, love, zeal, spiritedness, fascination, obsession, fixation, addiction and preoccupation. check. check. check.

    Interestingly, I’ve found that pursuing passion is not particularly easy. It appears there should be nothing easier in life than doing what I have enthusiasm and love for, right? After all, it’s what I love! There are at least two major obstacles to overcome. The first is a sly one.

    Do I really know what my passions are? The gut response is yes, of course I know what I love. But I’ve found that when actually working to define my passions, it becomes less clear, mostly due to the second obstacle.

    Do I know the difference between things I like, and things I love? It’s clear that I like to take all kinds of pictures. I’ve enjoyed photographing a wide variety of things, weddings, architectural interiors, school portraits, still life, landscapes, events and the list goes on. I like them all. I’m not passionate about them all.

    For several weeks I’ve been working to define what I love most about images and making them. This has been a challenge. I ask myself what do I love, and what do I really love? What am I drawn to for its own sake, without considering what I think its market appeal is.  This is not about finding what kind of work will make me the most money. Forget what sells best, or what the big shot photographers are doing, what kind of imagery has the most draw for me?

    I’m excited about this process and the focus it’s bringing to my ‘work’, particularly thrilling is the way that with practice I’m learning to recognize my own passions more clearly, and along with that comes increased confidence to pursue them.

    The image at the top has been stuck in my head for several weeks. I haven’t defined why, but I know that it elicits fascination, obsession and preoccupation, also known as passion.

    Below are a few other photos from the shoot. The model is Erika Klaar and it’s spring in Alaska. I remember that I was completely consumed by the creative energy on this shoot, buzzing from the thrill of creating images. This is not rare for me while photographing, and that high I feel confirms that I’m doing what I love. Thanks for reading all this, I hope it inspires you to follow your own addictions with greater focus.

  • Thankful for. . .

    surfing alaska photo

    I’m not much into the holidays. I remember my distaste for them starting when I was young. Life was going along so merrily then suddenly there was an interruption, an intrusion, a holiday. It was Christmas, I couldn’t just spend the whole day doing whatever I liked. .no this was a ‘special day’ meaning that there were certain things that HAD to be done and most likely my friends HAD to be somewhere doing something as well.

    This holiday feels different. I’ve spent the last 4 hours alone in my house working on the computer and thinking about life, especially the photography part of it. I’m working through what could be called a growth phase, spending lots of time trying to define what I want most out of this photography obsession. I’ll post more about this soon. But now I’m just reminded how great it is that the obstacles I’m working to overcome are things like trying to decide whether I love to shoot aerials or outdoor adventure photos better.

    Today is thanksgiving. I have a LOT to be thankful for. Here’s a few things that come to mind: Good, no make that great, health. Ability to pursue my photography passion not just for fun, but for a living. That stuff you might have heard about it being a bad idea to make your hobby your job, my experience has been the opposite, go for it! This last summer was dreamy, traveling around Alaska shooting photos without a schedule. Surf trip to Yakutat, Alaska in October. Financial security, I’m not wealthy per se, but I don’t have any real money worries. Each day I wake up whenever feels right, and see what the day brings. My office is 20ft from my bed, and the kitchen is nearby. Today’s visual thanks goes out to surf, and my surfing buddies, two special parts of my life. Yesterday we had some good waves, and great times. For thanksgiving dinner I’m heading over to a surfer friends.

    I’ve heard that being grateful for something brings more of that into your life. So, if that mysterious power is listening: I am thankful for every wave and if there are waves tomorrow I’ll be thankful for those too.

    Hope you are well. Here are a few recent surfing photos from one particularly enjoyable day in early November 2008.

    surfing alaska photo

    Surfing Alaska photo

    Surfing Alaska photo

    A little self portrait, a little distorted but it still brings back some good memories.

  • Photo in Patagonia winter catalog

    Two weeks before I actually saw it myself, I started to hear about this photo which came out in the Patagonia winter catalog. It’s been fun hearing from friends, both close and distant, who were excited to stumble across the photo.

    For those unfamiliar with the Patagonia catalog legacy I’ll tell you a little about it. Basically, it’s a product catalog for an outdoor adventure apparel manufacturer. But instead of just filling the pages with photos of the products, the focus is on portraying the lifestyle that the products are created for. Drawing from adventure photographers worldwide, the editors are consistently able to produce catalogs with such inspiring images that many of us keep old copies in our shelves right alongside favorite magazines. In a recent email one of the editors at Patagonia told me they filter through over 80,000 photos each year!

    The skiier, Erika Klaar, is a friend from Homer out on our local Baycrest trails last winter. If you look closely you’ll see the trees near Erika are blurred from motion. This image was one of just a couple out of several hundred that actually came out well, Erika is sharp, but the trees are blurring as she races by.  The effect was achieved by chasing her on skis while shooting photos wildly hoping that with some good fortune I’d come home with one good frame.  We are both excited the image made the cut and I’m looking forward to trying this technique again. Photo shoots are my favorite exercise.

    Keep an eye out for the Heart of Winter catalog from Patagonia, rumor has it the Alaska surfing scene might be set to make an appearance there.

    Below are a few other photos from this shoot: