Disneyland, Part I

Since my wife works part-time at Disneyland, I end up spending an inordinate amount of time at the parks. Alone. With my camera.

I sometimes have an idea of what types of approaches I want to take with the photos: very colorful, minimalist, nighttime-only, special filters on the lens, one specific lens, etc. These approaches enhance my creativity - sometimes forcefully.

Disneyland is one of the most-visited and most-photographed places in the world. It’s hard to compete with millions upon millions of photographs. So, that’s why I compete only with myself. How can I visit the parks so much and take so many pictures while keeping them fresh, unique, and feeling like it’s a picture that only I could take?

That’s one of the great challenges and pitfalls of photography, though, right? Originality. Uniqueness. You don’t know the brief, but very real revulsion I feel when a potential client tells me that they’ve seen someone else’s photographs and they want me to take pictures like them. I’m not here to take pictures like anyone else other than myself.

Only I can take the pictures I take. When I sing, I want to sing like me. When I write, I want to write like me. When I photograph, I want to photograph like me.

My art is mine. My style, my voice, and my vision are singular to me only.

I’d like to think that my frequent visits allow me to slow down and see the parks with a different eye than the people who are trying to desperately to cram every last ounce of value from their tickets.

I’d also like to think that my photos are better because I’m able to take my time often aimlessly walking through the parks. I’m able to pause and sit on a bench and imagine what a picture may look like under specific conditions. I’m even able to plan potential future shots for subsequent visits (thinking of a daytime picture while visiting at night, or vice versa).

Because I frequent the parks, I’m able to see in my mind’s eye how parts may look like during the daytime with certain lenses or coloring styles or how the lighting might look like during different parts of the day.

Maybe my mind’s eye is (part of) my gift. My secret sauce. My special ingredient. I don’t know. But I do like knowing that my photographs are mine. I’m not ripping anyone off with poses, edits, styles, approaches, whatever.

I want you to look at my pictures and think to yourself that only I could have taken that photo; that you can’t just open a random social page and see different versions of the photos I’ve taken.

I didn’t set out for this post to be some diatribe on my creativity, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. But that’s part of the fun of putting the pen to the paper (so to speak), right? Just start writing and see where the words leads.

And such is the case with my pictures. I just start snapping and going where the viewfinder takes me.