Lily Pad and Reflections in North Vista Fountain Water at The Huntington Botanical Gardens

“…you may get it in half a roll; you may use five rolls and never get it. What I don’t understand is five rolls showing the same damn thing.” – William Albert Allard

I’ve been photographing the Huntington on a regular basis for nearly an entire year now. My goal through this has always been to push beyond the obvious and interpret the Huntington in a different way. Bill Allard’s quote rings so true to me because I see so many photographers that shoot the same stuff, the same way for years. Don’t they ever get bored? I do. I always want to evolve.

The reason why I think artists become stagnant is because once you reach a certain level of commercial success or critical acclaim it can be hard to resist that pressure to keep churning out the same work that got you to the dance. It’s like being an undefeated fighter. No one notices you at first when you are hungry then eventually people start to notice then eventually the pressure builds to a point where you stop learning and start fighting to not lose, rather than to progress.

See more of my Huntington Gardens photos.

6 Responses to “Showing the Same Damn Thing”

1. Russ Bishop
   March 19th, 2012 @ 12:25 pm

   Thoughtfull post Richard. The more familiar we are with a subject, the more we need to challenge ourselves to see the unseen and keep our vision fresh.

2. Richard Wong
   March 19th, 2012 @ 2:19 pm

   Thanks Russ.

3. David Leland Hyde
   March 23rd, 2012 @ 12:07 am

   It’s damn beautiful. Keep showing it.

4. David Leland Hyde
   March 23rd, 2012 @ 12:09 am

   What I meant was, you do seem to find something unique even in the same place. I like it.

5. Richard Wong
   March 23rd, 2012 @ 3:28 pm

   Thanks David. It certainly doesn’t get any easier to do something different the more I visit The Huntington but that’s the beauty of it because I don’t feel a need to produce every time I go there and can just experience.

6. A Requiem for Iconic Landscape Photography : In the Field: Photo Blog by Richard Wong
   October 25th, 2012 @ 6:00 am

   [...] my older post that is related to this topic: Showing the Same Damn Thing Tweet Category: Nevada, Valley of Fire SPTags: images > photography concepts > photos > pictures > [...]

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