Mileposts, Markers, and Warning Signs
We all have them… They glow in the dark and remind us of our mortality.
Maybe it is when you get your first real view camera or see your work on the cover of a national magazine. Maybe when a rep calls to talk about working with you, or the simple act of closing your studio and moving to location work.
Mileposts tell us how far we have come on the journey and the stay stretched out ahead of us.
Markers denote a specific time in that journey where significant events occurred.
We look ahead and see mileposts, we look back and see markers.
“When I get my Full Frame next month, I’ll…” is a milepost. It denotes a place that changes as we move toward the future.
“I remember moving into that first little studio back in ‘79… how I loved that place. All mine.”
That is a marker that defined a time before — studio-less — and a time after — with-studio.
We measure markers with birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and special events. We see them looming in the distance and then we attach an event to them.
It is our nature to do so.
We want order in our lives. We want to be able to measure against other lives and accomplishments and events.
But sadly, we really cannot.
Our mileposts are our own, and the markers we make are distinctly personal.
Your mileposts are different than mine and my markers are sure not yours.
We treat them as though they were ubiquitous, and perhaps that is right. A birthday is a birthday.
But — somehow — we all know that a birthday of 77 is not the same as a birthday of 12. The realistic expectations on both reflect the markers one has made — or not yet had a chance to make.
A year is but 365 days… no matter how old one is. But a year to a 12-year-old is 1/12th of his life. If it were a pie, that would be a pretty good-sized slice.
To a 77-year-old, it is 1/77th of the pie. The slices get smaller and the distance between them seems smaller.
I remember being 15 and knowing I had a year to wait to be able to drive.
A YEAR!!! Do YOU hear me — a whole darn YEAR!
Trust me, when you are 55 and someone says you can do something cool next year, you think… well, I should start getting ready. A year is not long at all, in fact, it is right around the corner.
One can only imagine how fast they go by for someone in their 80’s or 90’s. Blurrrrrrrrrr……
Photographers have a unique place within this interesting life study… we have the ability to make “Markers” for others — and ourselves. We can use the mileposts we see and anticipate the markers we need to make.
And what is cool — this is whether you are a consumer shooter making photographs of the kid down the street for his family, or a commercial shooter doing an ad for a startup company, or an editorial photographer doing a story on the last day of summer for a group of autistic children.
Mileposts = Markers. Moments along the journey from the cradle to the tomb.
And we get to make those markers.
WE get to interpret the subjects and light and composition to create a marker that is loved or explains something or simply invites a consumer to come on in and take a test drive.
S’all good. And we have that gift, that special tool set… that drive to make markers, whether for someone else’s mileposts or for our own.
Listen…
When a day goes by and you have not made a photograph, that milepost gets no marker. Nothing of that day exists — photographically anyway. (The bills are still there — I checked.)
And that is our loss. And it is in many cases unavoidable.
That brings me to the third kind of sign… warning signs. On the road, they warn us about upcoming turns or ‘merging traffic” to help us navigate between our mileposts without getting snagged.
In our lives, warning signs are more subtle and sometimes more important.
When I hear a photographer say, “I haven’t been shooting much…” I see a big red warning sign.
Something is blocking the flow. Something unseen. Something large or something small — but it is there.
If I were a doctor, I would run some tests, get some samples, maybe call in a colleague to discuss. But alas I am not a doctor, nor have I ever played one on TV.
I am a guy with cameras who’s seen a lot of mileposts and created a heck of a lot of markers along the way.
And my suggestion is to get out of the funk and shoot. Look ahead at the mileposts in your life, or the ones in the life you share with others.
Decide on a plan of action, a date, time, place.
And shoot. Make images. Not for me. Not for Instagram, or TikTok, or anyone really.
Make them for you. This is what I did today, this day #__ of my mileposts.
It matters not what you shoot, only THAT you shoot.
Every day if you can. At least a few days a week. P&S, CameraPhone, DSLR or trusty old Nikon F2 with a Nikkor 35MM f2.0 and loaded with Kodak Gold… make your markers.
Big or small. Grand or nearly insignificant to anyone but you.
To me, Photography is one of the most expressive of mediums, and one of the highest art forms.
Because — of time.
A painter, sculptor, designer, choreographer, composer… all are wonderful creative endeavors and I mean to take nothing from their art.
Photography has all of the same disciplines… visual composition, color, design, aesthetic… so much of the same.
But we have the distinct hand of time on all we do.
That 1/320 of a second doesn’t come back around again.
Mileposts go by in a blur. Markers are our way of shouting… I lived.
I did this.
“One beautiful sweet morning in ’97, for 1/500th of a second, through the tight confines of a telephoto lens I saw this.”
A photograph.
I hope you like it.
I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.
You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.
