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Faroe Islands

There are more than 35,000 digital files in my photo library, and the number keeps growing. Though, it ticks up at a little slower pace than it did a few years ago. Even though I go out with my camera more often, I come back with fewer photos. I have become much more intentional and patient about finding the photo before capturing it.

The intentionality has come because I have started to be able to see my desired image in my mind before the camera and lens capture it on the sensor. And I would argue that the processing of the images has something to do with this. I now know the feeling and the emotion of an image and how to use tools such as Adobe Lightroom CC and Photoshop to create it on the desktop — or the Darkroom App on my iPhone.

This would be an appropriate place to inject an obligatory quote from Ansel Adams. After all, he was a great proponent of post-production and spending time in the darkroom. But first, I will quote one of his printmakers (and a legend himself), John Sexton, who once said, “There is a considerable amount of manipulation in printmaking from the straight photograph to the finished print. If I do my job correctly that shouldn’t be visible at all, it should be transparent.”

I think that a seamless transition from start to finish is only possible when you have a photo in your mind long before the button is pressed. In my short photographic journey, I have come to a conclusion: in this era of billions of photos captured, uploaded, and shared every day, all photography — or at least, all creative photography — is interpretive.

The more I become comfortable with the camera, and the more I am able to easily use the post-production tools, the less I am interested in the literal. Sometimes, when I am brooding (which happens a lot) my photos become an expression of the grays in my mind. Sometimes, when joy envelopes me, the images become bright and hopeful, a vision of possibilities and the endless horizon.

The layers of the sea, the waves that come crashing in, can be angry or calm — it all depends on how you choose to view them. The rolling hills are either a battle lost to time and Mother Nature, or they are just a journey through the ups and downs of life. How one sees them and brings them to life in a photo, is just a reflection of their inner self.

This comfort with my own emotions has allowed me to go back and look at some of my older photos with fresh eyes. I thought there might be a chance my new post-production skills would help me reinterpret those images. And I was quite wrong. Only a handful of images were could be successfully translated, mostly because they were the ones made with a feeling that has not faded with time. These two photos from a 2018 trip to Hawaii were my hesitant first steps to finding my photographic footing. And when I looked at them again, it only took a few minutes of subtle manipulation to get them to the emotion I felt then.

Between Rock & Soft Place, Hawaii 2018
Palmy Skies, Hawaii 2018

These photos from the Faroe Islands in 2016 were on the opposite end of the spectrum. I wasn’t sure of what I was doing then, and as a result, the photos lack that emotional resonance. Turning them into black and white images gave them a new feeling, but I am unable to find a connection. Though that trip taught me that I am mostly a 50mm guy, I was not feeling the photos when I was taking them.

As I scroll through the archives, I am reminded of one true lesson of the past five years: feel the photos.

December 21, 2019, San Francisco.

Faroe Islands 2016
Faroe Islands 2016
Faroe Islands 2016
Faroe Islands 2016

Letter from Om

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Om Malik

Om Malik is a San Francisco based writer, photographer and investor. More....

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Letter from Om

A (nearly) daily dispatch about tech & future.

You will get my reporting, analysis, conversations, and curation of the essential information you need to make sense of the present future.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

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