That comment about "looking at a version of yourself in the past" stopped me in my tracks (and paused this video so I could comment). One of the realizations I've had is that my photography is the only connection I have to my past experience. The fact that an image exists becomes proof that in that moment I was engaged with something outside my head. And that's what my photography is; snapshots of my engagement with the world around me. SOMETIMES, some of those images are worth sharing, but ALWAYS they were all worth capturing. OK, now I'll unpause and finish watching.
Yes... you are capturing something, you captured that moment that will never repeat again... you captured the photons that created that specific moment.
I very rarely comment on youtube, but I have to say that your job Alister has an immense value. I am a photographer but I think your messages trascend the mere art. The concepts and the points of view you tell in your videos traduce in long spirals of thoughts and revolutionary intimate discoveries. In a day and age when mentors rarefied, your work here is an anchor. Thank you.
Alister - Thank you SO much for all that you give to us! Thank you for your insights, inspiration and ability to articulate it. I see over 4,000 have watched and liking your video would make such a difference! I always add the 'thumbs up'. I plan on buying all your books. So far I am on my second. Your knowledge is invaluable. Happy New Year. ✌
Some great thoughts there and beautiful images as always. My wife and I cracked up when you mentioned cringing at the "nice capture" comment because I'm always saying the same thing, LOL. I know people mean well but there's always something about that which I've never been entirely comfortable with.
I have been a subscriber to your channel for just a few months. At first I wasn’t sure if it was for me but as I have watched more and more of your videos I have discovered that it is exactly what I need. You really inspire me to become more at one with my photography. I still have a lot to absorb on this journey but I hope to continue with you and your expressive photography community. I love your images and all the more because you have invested yourself in them, which is what I want to do. My big take away from this video is self belief. I have difficulty with this in terms of photography so I hope to change this gradually in 2022. A very happy new year to you, Ann Kristin and your families and thank you for the inspiration to become a more expressive photographer.
Thank you for a great year, I retired a few years ago after 32 years as a photojournalist Despite you're style and creative interest are very different from mine, our philosophy and approach are the same.
Thank you for your inspiring videos. I am following for quite a while now and think I didn't miss many of your videos this year. Very nice photos you shared here, an inspiration to review my "best of" of this year. Looking forward for your next videos. Stay healthy.
Joining the Expressive Photography Community is one of the best moves I made this year. I hope conditions allow next year's Yosemite National Park workshop to take place. Happy Holidays to you, Anne-Kristin, and your families.
Merry Christmas to you and Anna-Christine (I hope I got the spelling right - my apologies if not). Enjoy your visit and time with you mum. Those were 7 really good words and explanations. I plan to get out more with my camera in 2022 and put stretch my creative muscle and be more open. Your last video on attitude also resonated with me. Let's hope things pick up in 2022. I think we all deserve a break after the last 2.5 years. Stay safe, take care and see you in 2022
When I started photography only 8 years ago, I knew NOTHING but took photos of just what I LIKED. As I learnt more (ISO, aperture, shutter speed etc) I took on board what others told me to do and put aside what I liked to do. I looked back on those early images and still like them - though I can see the lack of knowledge behind them. Now I have come full circle and take what I like again. The journey has been, and still is, wonderful and at last my own creativity is coming to the fore bolstered by knowing what my equipment is able to do. You have inspired me to let myself just be me, so thank you.
Thanks for the content Alister, your perspective on photography and life in general are refreshing and motivating. Glad I subscribed! Happy new year and best wishes!
Alister, I truly want to thank you. I found my way to your website and channel looking to become a better photographer. What I discovered was how to become a better me. You have challenged me personally in ways that have inspired introspection and encouraged me to redefine how I interact with the natural world. All the best to you, Ann Kristin and your mum this holiday season. I look forward to continuing this journey with you next year. With deepest gratitude and appreciation, Michael.
Thank You for another great, educational video! I’ve said it before and I say again- not only are you a great photographer but you have the ability to forward your knowledge in a way that makes me pick up my camera immediately and head out to the landscape. The last word, self confidence, something I struggle so much with but it’s getting better and I think I’m on the right road because when I show my pictures to my mother-in-law, her standard comment is: “Very nice! But what is it? 😅 Enjoy your time off with your family and looking forward to continue educating myself with the help of your great videos!
You are truly inspiring, supportive, and yes you do give a lot to us who follow your channel. It's like an wholistic channel about photography, where life experiences, emotions, feeling, creativity without limitations, spirituality and psychology are harmoniously presented to the world. I love the way you express and talk about photography and our creativity. I'm totally with you with all the important points you have spoken in this episode, all essential indeed, and the last of all very, very important. The self belief in what we do, the self belief when we just like something we did that seems very special to us, no matter if others don't like it. I have been following you for sometimes and I learn so much from you. You put words into things I cannot often describe but that Ido and feel inside. So thank you for bringing clarity and adding some very insightful narrative to my own emotions behind my work. Wish you some very special and magical time this Christmas with your family. Enjoy, you both deserve a break....you guys have helped so many people during these past couple of years of restriction and strange living and I have a lot of gratitude and respect for both of you and the beautiful channel you are constantly feeding! 🙏🏼✨
Regarding your points on "capture". My wife and I have sponsored a couple of refugee families and teaching them english was one of the tasks. It is sometimes a hard language to teach. Capture has the literal meaning but can be used in other contexts. To say the lion was captured is one thing but to say I captured the essence of Miles Davis or Wynton Marsalis (in my dreams) is another context altogether. Sometimes we have to go with the non-literal. Thanks for all the insights over the year!
I definitely think it's possible. Everyone starts off with a different starting baseline, I'm sure, just like athletics. But - it is always possible to put in the work, study, improve. One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year is pick my Top 10 images from the year and compare them to prior years' Top 10s. Have a great New Years!
Happy Christmas and I wish you a better New Year. I’ve enjoyed all your videos and learnt a lot too, so thank you and Ann Kristin for all your hard work. I think learning to express yourself is a great message for life and not just for photography. I’m thinking of all those clones I met in the corporate world who believed all the corporate BS. At 89 my mum fancied a change so moved from Yorkshire to Banchory near Aberdeen.
Hi Alister: Thank you for creating and sharing this message. As I reflect on 2021, your inspirational messages have been important to me and I can't under-state the importance that this has made in my creative journey. Best wishes to you, Ann Kristin and your family during this Holiday Season. Warmest regards, Keith
Was trying to come up with a catchy mnemonic for the “magnificent seven” but only came up with SEASEEP! Great content as always, and as you say the landscape constantly provides us with many of the 7, especially passion and energy
Definitely going outside into the landscape is what makes me reconcile myself with the mood I am in. It's not necessarily about getting cheered up. I only realized lately that it isn't about cheering myself up but about accepting my moods. When being out in the landscape comes together with photography and immersion into the moment, something magical can happen. The photos you show in this video are so personal and I can feel that in every one of them. Sometimes I'm asked: what is your favorite? But that too never is an absolute value but always a reflection of me at a given moment. That holds for my own work but also when I look at the work of others. I had already seen some of the images you show and others were new to me. When I was watching yesterday my heart made little somersaults when I saw the image with the gannets leaving "contrails" in the air 😃. 2021 was an important year for my photographic and personal development. Your gentle guidance has made a huge difference for me and the Expressive Photography Community has become a home.
That comment about "looking at a version of yourself in the past" stopped me in my tracks (and paused this video so I could comment). One of the realizations I've had is that my photography is the only connection I have to my past experience. The fact that an image exists becomes proof that in that moment I was engaged with something outside my head. And that's what my photography is; snapshots of my engagement with the world around me. SOMETIMES, some of those images are worth sharing, but ALWAYS they were all worth capturing.
OK, now I'll unpause and finish watching.
Yes... you are capturing something, you captured that moment that will never repeat again... you captured the photons that created that specific moment.
I very rarely comment on youtube, but I have to say that your job Alister has an immense value. I am a photographer but I think your messages trascend the mere art. The concepts and the points of view you tell in your videos traduce in long spirals of thoughts and revolutionary intimate discoveries. In a day and age when mentors rarefied, your work here is an anchor. Thank you.
Alister - Thank you SO much for all that you give to us! Thank you for your insights, inspiration and ability to articulate it. I see over 4,000 have watched and liking your video would make such a difference! I always add the 'thumbs up'. I plan on buying all your books. So far I am on my second. Your knowledge is invaluable. Happy New Year. ✌
I don't think anyone could learn creativity but for sure they could copy it. That inspiration may lead to one's own creativity.
You are indeed a breath of fresh air in the landscape photography community. Thanks again for sharing!
Delighted to hear that ❤️
Just to say an inadequate thank you for this chat. I find that if my mind is 'right' it generates the energy to be creative. Stay well.
Some great thoughts there and beautiful images as always. My wife and I cracked up when you mentioned cringing at the "nice capture" comment because I'm always saying the same thing, LOL. I know people mean well but there's always something about that which I've never been entirely comfortable with.
Thanks for the great videos which you all make available. I wish you the very best for 2022, above all, good health.
I have been a subscriber to your channel for just a few months. At first I wasn’t sure if it was for me but as I have watched more and more of your videos I have discovered that it is exactly what I need. You really inspire me to become more at one with my photography. I still have a lot to absorb on this journey but I hope to continue with you and your expressive photography community. I love your images and all the more because you have invested yourself in them, which is what I want to do. My big take away from this video is self belief. I have difficulty with this in terms of photography so I hope to change this gradually in 2022. A very happy new year to you, Ann Kristin and your families and thank you for the inspiration to become a more expressive photographer.
Thanks so very much. I am delighted to hear that
A high FIVE for this one Alistair.
Yes, Alister! You are my breath of fresh air for sure! Thanks for being YOU!
Thank you for your channel!
Love the content and your marvellous work.
Seasons greetings from the Azores Islands!
Thank you for a great year, I retired a few years ago after 32 years as a photojournalist Despite you're style and creative interest are very different from mine, our philosophy and approach are the same.
I just found you on YT just a couple of weeks ago and I really enjoy your videos. I'm feeling better about my own effort by your encouraging tone.
Thank you for your inspiring videos. I am following for quite a while now and think I didn't miss many of your videos this year. Very nice photos you shared here, an inspiration to review my "best of" of this year. Looking forward for your next videos. Stay healthy.
Joining the Expressive Photography Community is one of the best moves I made this year. I hope conditions allow next year's Yosemite National Park workshop to take place. Happy Holidays to you, Anne-Kristin, and your families.
Merry Christmas to you and Anna-Christine (I hope I got the spelling right - my apologies if not). Enjoy your visit and time with you mum. Those were 7 really good words and explanations. I plan to get out more with my camera in 2022 and put stretch my creative muscle and be more open. Your last video on attitude also resonated with me. Let's hope things pick up in 2022. I think we all deserve a break after the last 2.5 years. Stay safe, take care and see you in 2022
When I started photography only 8 years ago, I knew NOTHING but took photos of just what I LIKED. As I learnt more (ISO, aperture, shutter speed etc) I took on board what others told me to do and put aside what I liked to do. I looked back on those early images and still like them - though I can see the lack of knowledge behind them. Now I have come full circle and take what I like again. The journey has been, and still is, wonderful and at last my own creativity is coming to the fore bolstered by knowing what my equipment is able to do. You have inspired me to let myself just be me, so thank you.
Merry Christmas Alister. Thanks for being you.
Thanks for the content Alister, your perspective on photography and life in general are refreshing and motivating.
Glad I subscribed!
Happy new year and best wishes!
Alister, I truly want to thank you. I found my way to your website and channel looking to become a better photographer. What I discovered was how to become a better me. You have challenged me personally in ways that have inspired introspection and encouraged me to redefine how I interact with the natural world. All the best to you, Ann Kristin and your mum this holiday season. I look forward to continuing this journey with you next year.
With deepest gratitude and appreciation,
Michael.
Great video. Thank you for sharing those awesome images.
Simply superb. Thank you!
Merry Christmas! 🎅
Great video... a lot of insperation
Thank you for sharing so much with us!!
Thank You for another great, educational video! I’ve said it before and I say again- not only are you a great photographer but you have the ability to forward your knowledge in a way that makes me pick up my camera immediately and head out to the landscape. The last word, self confidence, something I struggle so much with but it’s getting better and I think I’m on the right road because when I show my pictures to my mother-in-law, her standard comment is: “Very nice! But what is it? 😅 Enjoy your time off with your family and looking forward to continue educating myself with the help of your great videos!
lol, I hear you. I have to buy my mum an Adam Gibbs Calendar every year as she likes “views” 😂
You are truly inspiring, supportive, and yes you do give a lot to us who follow your channel. It's like an wholistic channel about photography, where life experiences, emotions, feeling, creativity without limitations, spirituality and psychology are harmoniously presented to the world. I love the way you express and talk about photography and our creativity. I'm totally with you with all the important points you have spoken in this episode, all essential indeed, and the last of all very, very important. The self belief in what we do, the self belief when we just like something we did that seems very special to us, no matter if others don't like it. I have been following you for sometimes and I learn so much from you. You put words into things I cannot often describe but that Ido and feel inside. So thank you for bringing clarity and adding some very insightful narrative to my own emotions behind my work. Wish you some very special and magical time this Christmas with your family. Enjoy, you both deserve a break....you guys have helped so many people during these past couple of years of restriction and strange living and I have a lot of gratitude and respect for both of you and the beautiful channel you are constantly feeding! 🙏🏼✨
Good thoughts Alister, I'm still working on elimination myself but it's coming. A very merry Christmas to you both and a prosperous New Year too!
Regarding your points on "capture". My wife and I have sponsored a couple of refugee families and teaching them english was one of the tasks. It is sometimes a hard language to teach. Capture has the literal meaning but can be used in other contexts. To say the lion was captured is one thing but to say I captured the essence of Miles Davis or Wynton Marsalis (in my dreams) is another context altogether. Sometimes we have to go with the non-literal. Thanks for all the insights over the year!
I occasionally have spontaneous rants with very little attention to facts ❤️
I definitely think it's possible. Everyone starts off with a different starting baseline, I'm sure, just like athletics. But - it is always possible to put in the work, study, improve. One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year is pick my Top 10 images from the year and compare them to prior years' Top 10s. Have a great New Years!
Happy Christmas and I wish you a better New Year. I’ve enjoyed all your videos and learnt a lot too, so thank you and Ann Kristin for all your hard work. I think learning to express yourself is a great message for life and not just for photography. I’m thinking of all those clones I met in the corporate world who believed all the corporate BS. At 89 my mum fancied a change so moved from Yorkshire to Banchory near Aberdeen.
Wow, that a bold move for her, lovely area ❤️
Hi Alister: Thank you for creating and sharing this message. As I reflect on 2021, your inspirational messages have been important to me and I can't under-state the importance that this has made in my creative journey. Best wishes to you, Ann Kristin and your family during this Holiday Season. Warmest regards, Keith
Thanks Keith, that’s very kind and I wish you and yours my very best wishes also
Thank you for a wonderful year of learning, looking forward to see what’s in store for next year
❤️ thanks, it’s been a pleasure
Was trying to come up with a catchy mnemonic for the “magnificent seven” but only came up with SEASEEP! Great content as always, and as you say the landscape constantly provides us with many of the 7, especially passion and energy
Lol, I was trying the same. Thanks so very much for your support alike year
Happy Christmas :)
Definitely going outside into the landscape is what makes me reconcile myself with the mood I am in. It's not necessarily about getting cheered up. I only realized lately that it isn't about cheering myself up but about accepting my moods. When being out in the landscape comes together with photography and immersion into the moment, something magical can happen. The photos you show in this video are so personal and I can feel that in every one of them. Sometimes I'm asked: what is your favorite? But that too never is an absolute value but always a reflection of me at a given moment. That holds for my own work but also when I look at the work of others. I had already seen some of the images you show and others were new to me. When I was watching yesterday my heart made little somersaults when I saw the image with the gannets leaving "contrails" in the air 😃. 2021 was an important year for my photographic and personal development. Your gentle guidance has made a huge difference for me and the Expressive Photography Community has become a home.
It's getting qiute phylosophical here.
Oh yes indeed