One of the downsides of living in a smaller place is that you have a tendency to feel isolated from the rest of the world. This week Don Weber was in town for a couple of workshops and it was a nice reminder of the wider world out there.
Thursday night I met up with him and a couple of other local photographers at a local pub and we had one of those great freewheeling talks over a few drinks that left me buzzing with ideas at the end of the night.
Don and I were joined by Deddeda Stemler, Sean White (the two just back from three months in the Philippines) and Duane Prentice, all local photographers although Sean is also a videographer, filmaker, producer etc.
We chatted about the basic (equipment and cameras) , we talked about travel, we talked about technical things and format but most of all we just talked about ideas. Everybody had different viewpoints but it was all agreeable and thought provoking. I don’t really know Duane, this was the first time I had had a chance to chat with him and while he was quiet (compared to the rest of us) he had some interesting insights and thoughts about challenging yourself as a photographer.
The next day I took a look at Duane’s site and was struck by the connection between his Remnants project, David Pollocks’s Sign, Symbol and Nature and my own Saltwater And Rain project. There are, of course, differences, for instance both David and Duane are using large format and I’m not. All are about Vancouver Island though and are concerned with the impact of landscape. It would be interesting to see a show with all of our work together.