I’m not Ansel Adams. I’ve never climbed cliffs in Yosemite for a shot, sold prints for big money, and I’ve only framed a handful of my photos. My Flickr doesn’t even have that many images. My photography background began with my dad’s Canon T70, continued with bleached shirts after lengthy darkroom sessions, and progressed after many, many rolls of spoiled film. I eventually bought a DSLR, which in hindsight I should have done more research on. But the point is, I enjoyed photography despite not becoming a master of the craft.
One of my other passions is minimalism and decluttering. These days, I don’t own much at all after spending the last few years narrowing down my possessions. It’s been an enlightening transformation. Afterwards, I realized how many of my fundamental passions I had slowly been moving away from. I hadn’t ridden my bike in months, hadn’t cared much about my car in a while, and had spent a lot of time being unhappy. After my mother moved across the country earlier this year, I decided to finally finish my decluttering once and for all in an effort to get back to my favorite pastimes.
During this final push, I sold a lot of items on eBay, and even thought about parting with my photo equipment. But before I did that, I wanted to take my camera out and see if I could reignite my fondness for photography. This past weekend provided the perfect opportunity. The British Motorcar Festival was taking over my hometown and the Blue Angels were performing at the Rhode Island Air Show. I dusted off my Nikon and focused on capturing fewer, but more deliberate images.
Although I love having fewer possessions, I’m not ready to part with my camera just yet.
Here are a few snaps from the weekend. There are more on my Flickr page:
Sean McFarland 