Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of the easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
-Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
I had to analyze this poem back in the 6th grade. The teacher was (maybe) 25 years old. I think everyone who has had a normal high school experience had this sort of teacher.
All the jocks had crushes, all the nerds were intimidated, all the girls thought she hung the moon. And even though she had to take out her tongue ring and eyebrow piercing every day before coming to school, she was actually pretty good at her job. She inspired to us to write poetry, not only read it.
But to do this, she made us read a lot. A lot! Being who I was, I tended not to do such reading, but enjoyed the life lesson that came from it:
To be effective in any field, you need to be exposed to a huge amount of things in your field. Whether it be photos, novels, poems, movies… there is a pretty effective equation:
“Exposed to stuff in your field” + “practice your own stuff” = “getting good at your field.”
Its extremely hard to teach this idea. People actually believe that sometimes all it takes is doing it a little bit and you magically become a “professional” in the field. I assure you: to be an artist, you must live your field. You become attuned to the ways of the Force, if you will, and you start to “see” with the eyes of your field.
You want to be a photographer, see EVERY situation around you right now in your mind and exactly which lens it would take to photograph it not only from this perspective, but from 5 or 6 other perspectives… with both DX and FX cameras.
Can you do it without knowing that? You’re limiting yourself significantly if you do. And can you do this by taking a few hundred – or a few thousand – photos and magically “getting it”? Try tens of thousands… with each focal length.
In a day and age of instantaneous every – fast food, fast cars, fast relationships, fast computers – are the days of taking time to learn an art-form gone?
The young 25-year-old teacher was effective because she had the book smarts and the ability to convey information… and people respected her for their own reasons.
Anyways, stay tuned…
-Noah D.
