HOW TO BECOME SLIGHTLY HAPPIER AND GET A BIT MORE DONE
BY JASON PHANG
I enjoyed Oliver Burkeman’s book ‘The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking’ so much that I bought his other book; ‘Help!: How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done.’ Burleman’s self deprecating and no drama style of writing appeals to grumpy me. I know this sounds more like a book review than an essay about photography, but bear with me. In the book Help, Burkeman was quoting psychologist Neal Roese on the value of acting rather than just thinking and regretting later.
“If you decide to do something and it turns out badly, it probably won’t still be haunting you a decade down the road. You’ll reframe the failure, explain it away, move on, and forget it. Not so with failures to act’. You’ll regret them for longer, too, because they’re imaginatively boundless”— Neal Roese as quoted by Oliver Burkeman. He then goes on to say, “You can lose yourself for ever in the infinite possibilities of what might have been. In other words, you know that thing you’ve been wondering about doing? Do it.”
I’m my mother’s son. We both suffer from bouts of self doubt, prone to changing our minds repeatedly because we doubt our decisions. Oliver Burkeman’s words were ringing in my head when my husband Chris was encouraging me to go into town during my lunch break on Friday to photograph New Zealand farmers protesting the latest government regulations which threaten to badly affect their ability to operate their farms and threaten their way of life. Farmers are driving their tractors and farm equipment into the city to protest the government’s regulations, one of which is new taxes to penalise farmers who do not switch to electric vehicles. Farmers drove their tractors and farm equipment, all the way from where I live 40km out of the city, into the Main Street in the city to raise awareness of their plight and express their displeasure.
My style of photography is to sit in the background and make photos without affecting the scene and capturing candid moments. I was nervous about being seen by people I’m photographing, destroying the candid moment and god forbid, having to explain what I’m doing. But I decided to give it a shot anyway and head into town to see how I can capture the farmers. No regrets.
I arrived in town with this week’s lens, 50mm F2 on my [Fujifilm] Xpro3. My practice is to stick with one lens the entire week and it was an interesting exercise photographing a protest on the tight sideawalks of the city. I found myself jammed between concrete bollards and shop fronts as the Main Street in Auckland city is a narrow two lane road with one lane in each direction. Given the size of the tractors and the narrow sidewalks, I found my viewfinder filled with a giant tractor wheel of scenes with people cut right out. I was getting grumpier by the minute.
But, a good photographer does not blame their kit. I had to slap myself around (not in a good way and focus on how I should use the kit that I have in the environment I’m in. I decided to change my usual way of capturing my view and my habit of “hiding” from my scene. I engaged with the farmers, waving and encouraging them on. I had such a great time. It is as uplifting for me as I think it was for them and I took shots I feel proud of.
At the end of a long story, I think I let myself get too caught up in my own self created excuses for not making photographs. I just need to get my arse out the door. Here are some photos from the protest. Take care.
