Scott Dickerson

Tag: photography

Aerial photos by paramotor

Aerial photo of Kachemak Bay State Park in Autumn.

Here in Alaska the days are getting longer and the weather has been trying to improve. Spring is certainly on it’s way. With the longer days and fewer storms I’ve been able to photograph from my powered paraglider (paramotor) pretty regularly in the last couple weeks. You can read my introductory post about photography from a paramotor here.

The aerial photos in this post are from an early morning flight I took last August. Leaving from the Homer Spit up and over Kachemak Bay to China Poot Bay. The wetlands in China Poot are very colorful in the autumn with interesting patterns caused by the fresh water streams and tidal sloughs. All this is backed by the sun rising over the Kenai Mountains. The crisp and still morning air was perfect for flying and photographing in.

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March 24, 2010
Connecting with summer

Stephanie Haynes (Anahata-Alaska.com) practicing Yoga at the edge of Cook Inlet.

The thing about Summer in Alaska is – It’s here and very real, but not to stay. I’ve been busy making the most of it, which leaves little time to talk about it. Less talk, more fun. The pleasures abound: Taking photos, surfing, harvesting wild plants, kayaking, flying my paramotor (there’s a story to tell), and occasionally sleeping for a few hours between sunrise and sunset.

I’m continuing to explore the ‘nature with people‘ concept. Below are a few recent images resulting from this desire. Thanks to Stephanie for helping create these and many more.

So, maybe this one was really from spring, but it felt like summer to us.

June 12, 2009
Nature with people – a work in progress

For several months now I’ve had a photo concept rolling about in my mind.

In words it is something like this: A beautiful image of nature with a secondary element of a person actively engaged in an adventure, fitness, or well being activity. The beauty of nature is the focus, the person is just there enjoying it in a positive way. The motivation for this creative desire comes from my personal love of nature and the adventures enjoyed there. Highlights in my life are usually adventurous moments in inspiring natural settings so this, I suppose, is a way to share that.

Danielle Thompson told me about this beatiful grass field nearby that she had hiked through a few days prior. We went back on a gorgeous December day and she got a nice running workout in and I got to work on this creative concept. Some of you might recognize this style/concept from one of my favorite photos that I posted in my recent ‘passion in photography‘ entry. The photo of the uncurling fiddleheads with Erika running by certainly caught my fancy and helped form a love for this visual message.

Below are a few more photos from the shoot.

January 8, 2009
Talent. Do you have it, or does it have you?

To succeed as a photographer you gotta have talent they tell me. Ok, talent, what are you and where do I go for a second helping? I turned to the dictionary and here is what I found: Talent is a natural aptitude for a thing. Aptitude is a natural ability. Natural is something that exists or is caused by nature, not made by human kind. Read– out of reach, unattainable by human kind.

This search for talent looks like it might be a short one that already ended. But, I’m still curious how talent is defined in a photographer and where this natural ability makes its appearance.

Some have told me that I have talent for photography. I believe that they say this because they find a photograph I created engaging, beautiful, or surprising in some way. When I look for the mysterious talent amongst the process of creating those images I’m hoping that there will be an ‘ah hah’ discovery that will unlock the floodgates of talent in my future image making. I’m also hoping to find proof that little me is actually Mr. Big Time the bearer of great talent. Instead I see that these examples of talent are merely the product of countless unimpressive little details all coinciding in a moment that I looked through an electronic gadget and pushed a button. Surely there must be more to this! There are two areas within this process that I suspect talent may be hiding.

1. In the previsualization of an image. In order to be considered talented, I believe it’s necessary for an image maker to have images flash through his mind. These are ideas that are later created as photographs. I would define these visualizations as something that naturally exists beyond our control. As an artist I think we can make room for them, but really they come in from outside our minds. Think about food . . .did an image of pizza appear? If so you might have a talent there!

2. The visualized images is just that, nothing more, without the production process. These are the countless little things that must happen for a photo to be created – organizing logistics, finding a location, arranging the subjects etc..These things are important no doubt, but I don’t think such individual feats as remembering to bring the camera battery is what we consider talent. However, the collection of all these things with the required focus, motivation, and dedication to bring them together into a photograph might be.

The way I see it today – Talent is something that others say we have and something that we say others say we have. Really, in my humble opinion I think talent is a perceived and mysterious possession of an artist. The artist himself also finds this natural ability somewhat mysterious, but knows that if he does his work and sets the table, talent might just show up again.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any unquestionable examples of talent in my archive, so I’ve settled for a few aerial photos of a sunset over Kachemak Bay and the Kenai Mountains that I enjoy. Many things came together for these photos, actually ‘taking’ the photo was just another one of the countless required details. I could just as readily claim that I have a talent for living in a beautiful place as I do for photography. They are both things I thoroughly enjoy, but don’t claim ownership or title to.

PS if you were hoping for the secret to success, I can show you where to find it. It’s here in a 3 minute video from TED.

December 17, 2008
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.

December 8, 2008