I’ve got something to say! Well, no. Not really. That’s what has me totally nerved out about my presentations at the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium this Weekend. I’m doing a presentation called “Kayaking The Internet” on Thursday evening at 6pm, and on Saturday I’m doing a “Kayaking Photography for the Rest of Us” presentation at 2pm. I’m like, “How can I fill this time?” The truth is that much of what I do, from blogging to photography to social media works for me because it provides a theatrical wall between me and the audience. I want to talk to you, but when you pay attention and I look into your eyes, I feel like I’m probably wasting your time. Through blogging & photography I can speak with you as if you are the one person I trust in the world. I can feel at ease with you. Presentations are another monster completely.
My spin on what I do in life is all about sensual living as I’ve said many times here on Quix. It’s realizing that life is short and feeling a drive to soak it all in as deeply as possible. It’s not about being the most popular blogger, or doing the biggest trips, or even about being a renowned photographer. It’s really just me trying to find ways to taste, touch, see and smell the world around me. I blog, because it’s cathartic. I journal to an audience of one, you. In order to share with others skills or lessons, I need to know what I really think, and I need to be able to show that what I’m thinking has value. Blogging is a bit of a dry run on wet ideas. I’m in no way an authority in anything. There are so many others out there that fit that bill. Rather than being an expert, I feel that I’m simply standing with you in the audience, looking on, processing & learning with you. It’s sort of hard to do that from a podium.
So when I think of kayaking the internet I think about those of us who can’t make the “scene” or are socially just not good with groups or classes. I think that more often than not, these are the people who need us here on the web, bringing back the gifts of knowledge and experience we gain in our endeavors. Learning and sharing what we learn is not a product, but a gift. With only a half hour to speak on kayaking the internet, I think I’ll focus on how we can use the internet to talk to real people in real ways and not just use the web to expound upon our authority on the subject, or worse like our grandfather’s vacation slideshow.
In kayaking photography for the rest of us, I’m going to focus on limitation & again sensuality. I’m not a person who sets up shots and edits them within inches of their lives in Photoshop. Just like you, I simply want to capture a moment and attach the emotion I felt at that second. It’s not easy. Take the photo above for instance. It’s nothing from a photographer’s standpoint. Bland even. Yet, at that moment on the beach I was overwhelmed but the roar of the Lake Superior surf. The only way to capture what I was feeling was to get on the ground and make the surf look as big as I could, where the 300 foot sandy dunes along the shoreline were tiny and distant in comparison. Every time I see this photo, I remember the moment. Even though I recognize that the photo itself is rather dull. In the end that’s what your camera can do, If you connect with the sensuality of that moment and find a way to bring it home, that’s the victory. Even if no one else sees it.
I often struggle to verbalize such wispy ideas.. So yeah, I’m bloody nervous..
Related Posts: