Sunday Morning Reflections: A "Safety Stop" in Photography

Yesterday, cleaning up some files, another classic from years ago popped up. It's a shot of me and my daughter, Jaime, on a dive trip in Bonaire. And yes, I'm quite proud of the fact that somewhere around ten years of diving I learned how to blow smoke rings! 

Stay with me though, because there's a relevant segue...

In diving, at the end of your dive, you always take a safety stop fifteen feet from the surface for at least five minutes. The reason? It's called off-gassing and allows the nitrogen in your system to dissipate. Usually, while hanging out on an anchor line, or some dive boats actually have a safety bar submerged at fifteen feet, you have this incredible time to just ponder the meaning of life.

For me, if I had a digital camera with me, I'd be looking at images. Other times, I'd just be thinking about my next dive. Depending on the trip, I might be thinking about what my dive buddy and I were going to do next.

Well, what if, after every shoot, you did your own version of a safety stop?  It's the perfect time to think through if you got the images you want. Maybe it's a good time to just take a fast look at your camera settings.  At another time, you might want to think through doing something you've never tried before in your composition or exposure.

The point is, while a safety stop in diving is very specifically intended to promote safe diving, it's also a mandatory break in the action, forcing you to just access what you're doing and clear your head. Or in my case, it was an opportunity to display a completely useless talent!

Wishing all of you a wonderful Sunday with family and friends - or it might just be your day for a safety stop and a chance to enjoy the luxury of just pondering!