Just recently I had a student who was like an Australian bush fly. Whenever I looked around she was there close by; questioning, quizzing, annoying. Why didn't she go away and take some photographs of her own.
On this particular day she was especially inquisitive and intense.
'Dale, can I walk with you and watch you'
'Yep'
'Where do you get your ideas.? Where do you get your inspiration? I can see nothing at all here.'
'HmmMmm'
'How could you possibly find anything of interest here? Dale, where DO you get your ideas'
It was time to swat a fly, I thought.
I looked at her and smiled.
'I get my inspiration from people. People like you. Especially you'
Her mouth wrinkled a little at the corners of her mouth. She looked perplexed.
'Well, while you've been talking I've been looking. I've been looking and imagining. I fantasised that I was a bird flying low across that fallen tree trunk. The patterns in the tree trunk are a bit like a landscape.'
I photographed the tree trunk.
Then I asked her to stop talking and I shot my Aussie 'bush fly'.
There's a button on the D700 that you push and it squashes two photos together.
Sort of like a bush fly sandwich.
That was a few weeks back. Since then, my little buzzy bush fly has been buzzing less and shooting more and has sent me a couple of creative little photos.