A few weeks ago, I mentioned I was starting up The Cooking Project. My goodness has a lot happened since then! I have been cooking up a storm and indulging in so many new and interesting recipes. I've gathered new kitchen tools for cooking as well as different dishes, napkins and props. I've learned so much through experimenting with food styling and looking through cookbooks and blogs with excellent food photography. With over 40 recipes photographed in the last six weeks or so, it has been a whirlwind of activity in my apartment!

The Cooking Project has turned into a full blown frenzy in food photography, styling, cooking, recipe reading, and anything food related. Leave it to me to get wrapped up in a whole new project when so many other things are still on my plate (no pun intended!). But this has been a good lesson for me. In getting so-called-side-tracked in food photography, I began to think about my committment to wildlife photography. If I wasn't planning for trips, studying species as subjects, and looking at wildlife photos and projects all the time because I am busy with something so different, like food photography, then does that mean I am less of a wildlife photographer? Does it mean I am not really as passionate about it as I thought? I started to mull over where my head and heart were at until I realized something important. Why would I stick to just one thing?

Our culture places so much value on finding that one thing you do best and then working hard to excel at it. There is weight given to "focus", "commitment", "drive", and a narrow passion for something -- on having one style, or one expertise that brands you. But what about the value that comes from knowing a little bit about a lot, of being proficient at many things? Much can be gained from being single-minded about something, and I appreciate and admire folks who dedicate their lives to certain pursuits or a single subject, but I also have decided it's perfectly okay for me not to be one of them.

This is true for me in photography and every aspect of life. I don't want to have just one style or subject in photography. I don't want to have just one topic I write about. I certainly don't want to have just one skill I focus on perfecting. While some may call it being scattered, or distractable, or showing a lack of commitment, I've decided all my many bouncing interests just make my life, well, more interesting! If that means I do not earn the recognition or even respect that one who focuses whole-heartedly on a subject is likely to gain, that's alright by me -- it is more important to me to fully enjoy photography even if that means bouncing wildly from grizzly bears to rescue dogs to food to who knows what.

Right now, I am having so much fun learning about tricks for composition, styling, plating, lighting, and other aspects of a good food photo, and this could very well translate into success in other areas such as macro or landscape photography. And more importantly, falling into food photography has given me a new zest for cooking, for creating something delicious from healthy ingredients, for feeding my family only the best, for being creative in flavors as much as in styling, for everything that goes into food from field to table. What wonderful gifts this project has given me! That is something to celebrate.

Sometimes it feels like using Instagram is cheating on my camera. Why not take a "real" picture with a "real" camera and process it with "real" software? The short answer is, becasue Instagram is easier, and sometimes taking a photo is less important than capturing a momentary scene, really quickly and without disturbing it, then enjoying said scene sans camera. It might feel like cheating a little, but it makes life more enjoyable. For instance, take standing at a train platform:

I had bags in one hand and a ticket and iPhone in the other and we were about to go through the door to board, but dang the way that the light patterns were making the floor a grid, with the guy's reflective bag mirroring it was too much to pass up. There's no way I'd have time to get out my camera without the moment changing. But the iPhone was there. And so was Instagram, and voila! Something interesting, that is almost as much a surprise to me as anyone else since I didn't put effort into capturing and processing it. And, I boarded the train without being all stressed out that I was leaving something behind or droppign anything.

There's also the lovely ability of being sly. There's always someone using their iPhone at a bus stop. No one really pays attention to that. They pay attention to a camera aimed directly at them from four feet away. But not an iPhone aimed directly at them. So you can get some spontaneous and lovely street photos:

And then there's spur of the moment captures with family and friends. "Oh wait, lemme get a photo" works a lot better when the person doesn't have to wait for you to get your camera, turn it on, check the settings, aim, focus, fire. They're a lot more joyful about being captured if it happens in about .5 seconds, which is possible with an iPhone. And a quick filter from Instagram turns it into something fun:

That goes for delicate moments, too, when you know it's not possible to get your camera without ruining it:

But mostly, I love Instagram because it satisfies both the photographer part of me as well as the enjoy-this-time part of me. I can capture that incredible sunset, make it look rad in Instagram, and share it with friends in under a minute. Then I can enjoy said sunset until it fades to dark...

Photo of me on vacation, taken by my closet-tographer girlfriend

I'm well aware of the fact that to many serious photographers, there is no such thing as vacation. The civilian word "vacation" translates to "photo trip!" in Tog. I'm not that type of serious photographer. When I left for Kaua'i for a much, much needed vacation, I brough my gear but I didn't commit myself to using it. I knew I would have opportunities to take photographs that I've never had before from landscapes to endangered species, but I wasn't going to turn a chance to unwind and unplug into a high-strung trip revolving around whether or not I got the shot and is it awesome enough. I feel strongly that while photographers can bring their passion with them practically anywhere since cameras are ubiquitous, it doesn't mean we should. There's something to be said for putting the camera down for hours, even days at a time, and just.... living, committing scenes to memory through experience rather than committing them to a digital file format that you can't wait to tweet out.

In Kauai I tried hard to have a balance between taking photographs and soaking in the scene sans camera. I think that awareness of enjoying a moment for the sake of the moment ensured that I got the most out of my time on a phenomenal island -- and is probably why I felt more relaxed than I have in years.

I think this trip, for me, solidified the photogilosophy that it's always a good idea to have a camera with you, but it's okay to step away from it and be simply human.

I didn't get a lot of shots, and pretty much not a single great shot, but what I did get is up on Flickr if you'd like to check em out.