There's no going back-once you embark on the journey you're meant to live, it's impossible to settle for anything less than your dreams.
Richard Yates is a photographer and art director based in California. He shoots a diverse range of subjects for personal and commercial clients, as well as capturing the natural beauty on his adventures.
“You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.”
― Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise
Documentary photography is a genre of art that’s as broad as the world it seeks to capture.
The umbrella of documentary photography covers portraiture, photojournalism, street photography, and the pictorial recording of live events like weddings sports, or social gatherings.
What photography means to me....
There's nothing like it. . . the ability to use a single tool to capture, and experience different cultures, bringing them to life with a single click of my camera. It is truly magnificent.
It began with a simple desire to do something I have never done before. A vision to create, and document my world through the art of photography.
Looking back at my first photographs, I knew nothing about exposure, they were astatically incorrect. However, I still managed to create some beautiful images at an Indian ritual I was so honored to be invited to. . . the connection and the love that came thru was so amazing. I spent a whole day with this family. . . watching, learning, doing what I love. It wasn’t a job I was paid for, but I left feeling like the richest man alive!
“What Photography Means to Me”!
This passion I have to create my own style of art with my own techniques. With today’s modern advancements in photography equipment, it’s what I strive for. Progressing and growing my skills, with nothing holding me back. Allowing my creativity to grow into something I never have dreamed I could accomplish. I have begun experimenting with cameras and lenses like never before. Using the refraction of light and finding ways to manipulate it, and use it to make my photographs into something of my own vision… just wow. I could have never imagined how much you can do with it. Light rays bouncing around, using the glass of my lens to redirect that light to a single point, creating a sharper image of that new beautifully designed tattoo being applied by an artist on his canvas. I have learned that to capture the true essence of photography one must slow down, really take in the moment. I have found that to ensure a forever lasting image it takes slowing down, taking it all in, and then and only then do you snap the shutter!
“What Photography Means to Me”!
Photographic journaling is something that has been around for centuries. Ancient tribes of all races, and religions have used photographic journaling as a tool to chronical their place throughout history. Archaeologists for years have been discovering paintings, drawings, and sculptures from around the world that have been left behind, to tell a story.
It is these visual artifacts that assisted in all that is documented today, all that we know about what existed before we were here.
Now in the modern world a completely new form of documentation has emerged through photography, and I’d like to think of myself as part of today’s modern tribe, and this is my opportunity to tell my story through the lens of my camera, leave my mark in history for those that don’t exist today.
“What Photography Means to Me”!.
My Medium.
I envision myself not as a photographer, more so a medium of photography. It is far more to me than a photograph, my subject the canvas, the camera my paint brush. To me it's capturing life, documenting moments that can never be recreated.
One might say that the same picture can be reshot, restaged, and maybe it can? However, the connection at that very moment that the shutter snaps, cannot be recreated. That one moment capturing that ever so brief unique feeling, no distractions, just the artist and his subject. It is that alone that can never be recreated, restaged, or reshot. It is in that moment, right before hitting the shutter I feel so deeply connected with my subjects. That connection is so special to me.
For me, it is knowing that moment can live forever. What is captured in that photograph for me, is a conversation that my subject gets to share with a loved one. A memory that they get to relive over, and over again.
With every shoot, no matter what the subject may be, I have the unique honor of getting to absorb everything about it. Every image brings me back to that moment. . ..
Have you ever had the pleasure of seeing someone look at a photograph and watch as they get a rush of memories from that moment, getting to RELIVE (not reliving) the connection with that person in the picture, or reminisce about the location where that moment was captured. . . maybe even a certain fragrance that was in the air can be brought back from that picture! It is this, that I am able to do with my love of photography.
This is my medium!
The
Spirit of
Adventure.
Some would say explorers are risk-takers who venture into unknown territory to fulfill a mission, I like to think an explorer is a person who is drawn to culture, a person who desires to capture it to share with the world.
This world is a big, beautiful place filled with raw beauty, and yet so few of us will ever get to experience it with our naked eye. I want to see it all! I have always been drawn to other cultures, an unexplained need to experience them in their true traditional state.
If exploring the world can give that to me, and photography can help me bring it back to share, then yes. . . I am an adventurer!
Life of Adventure isn’t always black and white, Breaking free isn’t always so easy.
The point of no return is the point in the story where your Protagonist can no longer return to his former ways or former life. They are fully committed to completing their journey. This my story!
Life on your own terms means the ability to live a life that is meaningful and fulfilling to you.
Through a lot of hard work, and I mean a lot, I’ve created a life filled with abundance and happiness. I want to share with you what I have learned over the years about being a successful entrepreneur.
