365 True Things: 313/Mastery

Today we visited the Annenberg Space for Photography, which is featuring an exhibition of Frans Lanting's LIFE Project: a wonderful film (plus a couple more short ones), beautiful big prints, illuminating captions. It was an hour-plus very well spent.

Here is a TED talk that gives an intro to the overall project. It's worth watching.

I admire serious photographers who master the tools of their trade: strobes, reflectors, all the various lens options, depth of field, aperture settings, etc. etc. I sort of know about all that stuff, but I don't actively use it. Mostly, I shoot snapshots. And sometimes I get lucky and get a good shot.

Of course, it helps to have resources like helicopters and access to remote islands and, I imagine, megafunds. This project surely cost a bundle and a half. Times two.

In most things, I feel like a dilettante. I'm a good dilettante, a talented enough one, a thoughtful one, sometimes a careful one. But I don't aspire to mastery. I get pretty good at something and then skip on to the next thing: that's my standard MO. If I've "mastered" anything, I expect it's what I've done these past thirty-five years to make a living: editing. Language, grammar, punctuation, concision, consistency, pragmatism, sense. I am a good editor.

But now that I'm hanging up my editing spurs, I'm wondering if there's anything I'd like to turn that focus toward. Maybe artist books. Or . . . maybe something I haven't considered yet. I'm keeping an open mind.