Small Rebellions

I was walking through my local arboretum’s Christmas lights festival with my family, and a few thousand others, when I noticed a group of photographers standing in front of a tree filled with red blinking lights.

They weren’t taking pictures. Their lenses weren’t even pointed at anything interesting.

Instead, they were talking about their cameras. And as more people passed, more stopped, also to talk about cameras and settings.

This is the pack mentality that gave birth to A Lesser Photographer five years ago. It won’t ever go away, nor should it. That’s what makes rebelling against it so interesting.

For my own little act of rebellion, I took out my phone, propped it up against a tree and shot the opposite of what everyone else was shooting. I shot the fleeting moment of those scampering indoors to warm up, not just the lights, which are sure to reappear in the same location every year for the rest of my life.

OK, so that’s a very small rebellion, but eludes so many, it feels bigger than it is. Which is the whole idea behind A Lesser Photographer I suppose.

This year I’ll be giving thanks for you and for five years of small rebellions.

Thank you!

- CJ

Originally published in the A Lesser Photographer newsletter. Subscribe here.