While my work on the previous challenge "Create art that you love" by Cynthia Morris still continues, it's July 3rd already, which means challenge #3 has officially started 2 days ago. A few words on this brand new "Connect to Anyone" challenge.

Meet Gerry O'Leary. Gerry is an Irish, award winning photographer who holds a Masters Qualification in Architectural Photography for Europe, which is the highest professional award available. In other words, Gerry takes pictures of buildings and is darn good at it.

I know that last remark might come across some or what disrespectful, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact it doesn't say anything about Gerry's accomplishments, it says a great deal about mine in the field of photography. Apart from the occasional holiday, birthday and bachelor party snapshot, I just don't have any. So there, once again, what a great way to start a challenge. I'm a blank canvas once again, or in this case, an unexposed CMOS sensor.

Before telling you about what it is Gerry invited me to discover, I should need to confess something. Gerry's involvement in Pinching the Ostrich began 3 months ago, when I started to "Create art that I love" for Cynthia. I was in contact with him during the preparations of the Q2 challenge and he thought Cynthia's assignment was right on the mark. So he invited my to both Cynthia's and his challenge simultaneously. I accepted and failed miserably.

I ran into the limits of my available time, energy and ability to focus, trying to juggle both challenges at the same time. Partly because that's just me, being an all or nothing kinda guy. I just couldn't invest all my available resources in doing two things half as dedicated as each of them deserved. And so I contacted Gerry to ask whether it was fine that I postponed his challenge to the next quarter. He agreed, for which I am very grateful.
You see, running into the limits of what I was able to absorb – work, family, a rather intense hobby, the passing of a close relative, the studies at the OU London, etc – is an inevitable and valuable part of this journey. And teaching yourself to say "no" is just as important as learning how to wholeheartedly say "yes". So nice lesson right there. Again, thank you Gerry for understanding. But here's what he invited me to do.

He said that photography, is a lot like painting. The essence of your work is that you work with light. Without light, you wouldn't be able to see even the most spectacular painting ever made. And the same goes for photography: no light, no picture.
He put it very eloquently when he said: "Photography is a lot like composing music. You might be able to listen and appreciate music, you might be able to read musical notations, but composing music with all of this is something quite different." He basically told me that photography is composing light. And this, is what he invites me to discover:

1)    I am to put the camera on a tripod
2)    In a dark room…not an darkroom…a dark room
3)    I am to open the shutter (long exposure)
4)    And paint the room with different light sources (candles, flashlights)

By means of the light sources used and the way I handle them, I should have the light tell the story. Because that is what pictures do, they tell stories. Or better yet, the light captured in the picture is the storyteller. To make it even more interesting, I should be in the picture…hmmm. (Can you see the practical issue with this, or is it just me?)

The funny thing is, I don't have three months to do this. I have but one! I have 30 days to finish this assignment and then he's going to give me another. So at this point I don't really have a clue what the bigger picture is (no pun intended). I trust Gerry does.

So there you are. Yet another step into the dark, both literally and figuratively speaking this time. And hey…why don't you join in? Open a Flickr account and dive in.

Take care,
Karl

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