Mullimburra Point, NSW South Coast. I've photographed this many times before on our Narooma workshops, but I still love it as a location.
I'm writing this from Kiama just south of Sydney. It's been a wonderful weekend of photography and fine dining with a great group of people - and special thanks to Rob, Scott and Luke from Kayell for hosting the Canson Weekend Away 2024.
It was four years ago that Kiama hosted an earlier Canson Weekend Away and I confess this time to really appreciating the re-visit.
While a part of me loves exploring new locations, another side of me likes returning to locations I have enjoyed before. It's true that there are many great places in the world to discover, so make the most of life and go somewhere new. Yet part of my life is driven by capturing images which make me happy, images that I am satisfied with, so to return to a location and to seek for an even better rendition of a previous subject is a really enjoyable challenge.
I also think you get to know a location better. I'll be visiting Bhutan for the eighth time next month and while I have been to most of the destinations before, I'm still looking forward to the explorations ahead. I feel that my work improves with each visit. I learn more about the country, about its people and its locations and this knowledge, this experience informs the photographs I take and make. While I do repeat some photographs, I like to think that they are being done better. And while the locations might be repeats, there is always something new to find and photograph that I hadn't seen before.
Like so many things in photography, there's no right or wrong. How you approach things is completely up to you, but if you hesitate before returning to a location because you think there might be somewhere better to go, a fear of missing out on something new, my view is that you can also be missing out on something new at an old location too!
For me, depth of experience is just as important as the number of experiences, perhaps more so.
And talking about the NSW South Coast, Len Metcalf and I will be returning to Narooma for another intensive educational week of photography and classroom study. Details are on the Better Photography website and you might also like to check out the little promotional video I made a year or so ago on Youtube - see below! And a second rendition of Mullimburra Point.