I’ve just read a piece from Craig Mod about what I might call long form walking. A sort of mindfulness-while-mobile state of awareness. A different kind of being disconnected. His essay prompted many thoughts about my own place, methodologies and recent experiences. And, I suppose, I have been seeking some sort of equilibrium over the past few months. My increase in exercise and its intended weight loss results have caused wide ranging changes in my thinking and perspective. The therapeutic nature of walking and its peripheral consequences have had a profound effect on me. The following is a tangentially related conundrum of my own making. And, I admit this is a strange, longish, preamble about a thought process that I’m currently having. Namely, on whether to attach my camera to a wrist strap or a conventional worn-around-the-neck camera strap.
I realize that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of connective tissue between these two very disparate ponderings: Long walks filled with solitude and whether or not to use a wrist or a camera strap. I’ll attempt here to connect the dots.
I think at the most simple level it’s a question of active versus passive observation. When the camera is on a wrist strap, it is in your hand, full-time, it’s always at the ready. A third eye, so to speak.
When the camera is on a conventional strap and slung around your neck, with the camera often resting at your side or swinging laterally across your chest and not directly in your hand, it occupies the space of an accessory or secondary element. Still available, yes, but not as at the ready.
A hanging camera gives way to a more passive way of seeing; a physical and mental bifurcation of craft and awareness. I think it’s a question of whether or not you want your photography to be either intentional or accidental. I use the term accidental loosely here. Setting out to photograph while using either type of strap is an obviously intentional exercise. I guess this thought process is curious to me as I’m interested in exploring the brackish areas of awareness, utility, opportunity and intentionality. Ultimately, helping me to answer the questions of “what do I want to do, what do I want to make, and how do I want to make it?”
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*After all is said and done, and after much too much reflection on this subject, I have decided to use a wrist strap and not a conventional camera strap for the time being. My initial fears of hand fatigue during long walks (60-90 minutes, or more) have proven to be mostly unrealized.