This past weekend I photographed an apple festival in Nelson County Virginia. In this week's blog, I was going to write about how much I love photographing events that represent Americana. So here I go again, saying how much I love to photograph this event or that event. I am finding that whenever I write about an event in my blog, it almost always begins with "I love photographing this because . . . " So I had to ask myself why, and after some reflection I believe I have found the reason. I love photographing events because I love photography. I love photography because of what I can create with it. And I love any opportunity where I can be creative. Let me illustrate.

Earlier in my life I studied piano. I loved the instrument. I loved the music that I could create with it. Studying piano was where I was first introduced, and learned to love, classical music. My last piano teacher would always say to me, "Paul, don't just play the notes. Make what you are playing a piece of music." Later on during my career in the engineering and IT professions, I wrote software and I loved it. I loved the creativity in taking a concept and breaking it down into finite steps so that it could be coded and executed.  Fast forward to now. Photography is my latest creative experience. I love creating photographs, along with the feelings I can evoke from them. Each photograph has my imprint, my style, my vision of what I want to capture. Each photo opportunity, regardless of what it is, lets me do this again and again. Mastering any of these crafts requires skill, years of study, and experience. But most importantly, they all require creativity. Even writing this blog requires creativity (and many revisions).

Let me share this with you. My favorite composer is without a doubt Beethoven. Almost every piano student (including myself) performs the 1st Movement of Sonata # 14 in C# Minor ("The Moonlight") during their course of study. Those who master the instrument perform Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto in D Minor, which is considered to be the most difficult work ever written for the piano. Moving on to my career, I wrote software in Fortran which is an extinct programming language. But it was the grand dad to languages like Basic which is used to write macros in Microsoft Excel and Access. As far as photography goes, I have only written the first chapter in a book of what I plan to be many chapters. My inspirations are my mentors for they have taught me much. But more importantly, I draw inspiration from those whom I photograph. Without them, there is no creativity.

Thanks and have a great week.

Until next time,

Paul