I photograph things that don’t make sense. It’s when you question their sense or try to alter the basic idea for the sake of others interests or the sale of such photographs does the image become plastic and contrived. I used to shoot fences in the field, sunsets on the edge of simple roads without the idea of selling them. My only downfall was actually selling a photograph and changing the way I looked at shooting.

At one time it was trying to find abstract images to show interesting patterns in nature but if you’re not really excited about them, how can you possibly convince the viewer to be. I shot a photograph for an electronics firm which I worked for a week trying to get it the way it needed to look for the ad-unfortunately for me was that the success of that photograph stirred my ego. Suddenly instead of an artist with a tool, I became a professional photographer looking for the next image to sell and nothing good would come of this.

I remember I had connected with a stock company and was trying to find an image of a taxi in traffic or a police officer standing near a crowd, the scavenger hunt does not lend itself well to creative spirit. I remember the last photograph I didn’t take that really messed my whole sense of photography-a bouquet of flowers on a gravestone was reflecting the early afternoon sun, it was in Palestine Texas and instead of shooting it, I thought about it, how and why should I shoot it and where would I sell it-I passed it by and my punishment was a lack of being able to see beyond the obvious.

This weekend I got away from my life, I feel almost like a ghost in a sweet purgatory, I got to look back as a child would on photography with not the slightest fear of getting it right or wrong and suddenly simple things become photographs to me, they say things beyond what they are at a basic level and that is what I believe elevates the snapshot to the insight on our everyday lives.

With the feeling of peace and confidence I have begun shooting freely and I see a bit of a difference in the outcome, it’s less about how the photograph comes out and more how I initially see it. The scavenger hunt of photography is how objects, images and their colors appear to the artist eye tell their stories-it is our jobs as artists and photographers to tell their stories and let the viewer find their own stories in those images. I am excited for the future of my photography as I have learned to see again.