Tic,tic,tic,tic?..I look at my watch and sigh.

Here I was, sitting down to a glorious sunset along Kata Beach on Phuket Island to the strains of ?a Girl from Ipenema? serenading me from a nearby beach-bar. And I hadn?t a clue what to do after completing the customary sunset shots.

I?ve got thousands of dollars worth of equipment in the bag but a kid with a $300 camera with enough practice is likely going to kick my butt, frame for frame. I?m in a rut!!!!!

It?s been months since I last picked up a camera. I thought that this trip to Phuket, the Pearl of Thailand?s beach heavens, would kick some inspiration and confidence back into my shooting.

Its only Day 2 in a 7 day airline-sponsored holiday. I?d already gone through 2 rolls of Provia, a roll of Velvia and 4 rolls of HP5 in the last 48 hrs alone.

But I quietly knew, I?d pretty much drawn a blank on any quality works as much as I?ve shot. And I knew why?

I had packed my camera bag with gear and film and just went to Thailand hoping for the best. Hoping that the in-born talent I (thought) had would pull me through with something miraculous?.just like in the movies.

Geezz, was I wrong?..and out of condition. If ever a pig was being led to the butcher?s, I was it.

I?m in generally GREAT physical condition, but my eyes needed to get used to ?seeing? again. They?d gotten complacent and lazy being months away from the viewfinder.

Good photography and coming up with great pictures is no different from any kind of sporting activity.

Of course there?s always the element of luck, confidence and sometimes in-born talent that will help. Its just like in bowling, where luck might sometimes throw you a strike once in a while, but never consistently.

Competitive sportsmen in any sport, from archery to cycling to marathon runners train hard for competitions. They do not sit around for days, weeks or months and expect to do well. This applies to good photography or pictorial works that satisfy you, the serious photographer.

Yes, its true folks, photography is a sport!!! No different from the elegant graceful works of figure-skaters, springboard divers, cross-country skiiers and NASCAR race drivers.

Training means, finding the time to get up before the sun rises on weekends, not getting home till way past sundown. It means shooting subjects you hate shooting normally, experimenting with concepts, lines, layers, f-stops, different film. It means getting your body used to the rigors of walking miles with a heavy camera bag/backpack. But most importantly, it means training the Eye to see beyond the obvious.

No Pain No Gain. The Pain of Boredom is real. Which is why many of us (myself included) occasionally (or permanently) turn into equipment junkies preferring to stay up to date on the latest developments in camera and film technology. The camera and film manufacturers will always be pleased to keep you well educated.

But not in training, especially when you?re shooting alone or with a few regular friends. Or even worse, when you?re shooting next to ?vultures? who think nothing of stealing your ideas on location.

Training in your own backyard to the point where it begins to become a routine sleep-inducing grind is an essential necessity to photographic greatness. Yes ?my town?s so boring!?, ?there?s NOTHING to shoot here??, ?seen it, done that??, ?yawn? show me something new? are common phrases we hear all the time. Training was never meant to be fun, its objective is to train the body (and shutter finger) into a lean, mean, shooting machine. And more importantly, its meant to turn your shooting eye and mind into thermal imaging machines, looking past the camouflage, the obvious and spotting unique ?targets?.

In short, its supposed to turn you into a dog. Or more specifically a blood hound, where with a whiff of the air and your doggie instincts tell you exactly where to look and where to aim your poop?..er, your camera?

Do you wake up one morning, say to yourself ?I want to be the next Galen Rowell?, go the camera shop after brushing your teeth, stock up on the appropriate equipment and take a taxi out to an appropriate landscape and shoot? Hoping for great works that National Geographic (or Penthouse) will buy and publish within a month?

Having a home-training routine helps. It doesn?t have to be a daily routine if you can?t afford the time but that helps. Shooting without objectives at home will keep you at square one (maybe square 2).

Some simple objectives and a spiced up Training Routine/Schedule will keep you focused. I?m an amateur but I have an organized schedule and a little list of objectives that I want met. Yours will be different to suit your circumstances.

Being married and with a regular Monday to Friday job that requires me to travel 3-4 days once every 6 weeks is my situation.

At home, I my objectives (aka my weaknesses) are:

1. using layers and linear relationships well
2. shooting architecture
3. handholding at low speeds after a 3km strut
4. overcoming the fear of human street portraits
5. shooting backgrounds well
6. knowing the Sunny 16 Rule like I know my own mother.
7. using my 6x9 competently

I shoot with the gear that I normally travel with, stuff that I?d normally shoot serious with. Its benefit is that the equipment and its controls will eventually become a de facto extension of your own body. You do not want that rampaging wild elephant in Northern Thailand to rampage by you as you try to figure out how to move your camera?s motor drive from single exposure to 6fps. You want to be able to unload, reload film inside a backpack/bag keeping the internals away from the dust blowing all over by the side of a busy highway. You DO NOT want to be in a Cambodian toilet they call a hotel room contemplating the difference between your camera?s evaluative, center-weighted and spot metering modes.

I don?t shed tears if equipment gets scratched or brassed. I proudly display them as battle scars.

With objectives, comes an overall purpose to this damned training schedule (yes I hate them too). One weekend I?m working on one, two or more of these objectives, the next, another set of them.

Your shooting eyes get honed. You will look beyond the obvious and find the subtle (and hopefull THE SHOT). When all the tourists are shooting a fish market to death, you?ll be looking instead at that half-broken back of a 10 year old child standing in one corner away from the action, with 20kg of fish in a basket on his shoulders. When everyone is shooting the cultural village?s demo on basket weaving, you, with your eyes trained, will instead be shooting behind the hut away from the crowd at an old lady repairing the bleeding blisters on the young fingers of a new village apprentice or a mother breast-feeding her young during her short rest breaks.

Your training at home, having stared down gangsters and getting the unphotographable photographed, will help you approach subject matter with confidence and an understanding of quick ice-breaking and friend-making techniques.

(??.the theme of Rocky, the Italian Stallion, drumming in my head)

BACK in my hotel room in Phuket. I quickly mapped out a 2 day refresher routine which I executed by forcibly staying within the grounds of the resort and leaving the final 2 ? days for more serious work to deliver the goods to the sponsor. They're very happy and satisfied.... and I get to fly to Kunming to do another shoot for them!

However, many will not have the luxury of a 7 day holiday and most likely not be in the same location for more than a day or a few hours without a chance of a return re-do to execute any hind-sight driven visions. Sort of sounds like trap-shooting doesn?t it? Once the clay birds fly, you shoot. There?ll only be 2 results?.you hit it or you miss.

With a simple uncomplicated home training routine, comes an educated and realistic understanding of the task at hand when you get to your dream vacation or assignment?.doing works that will normally turn out very different and unique from everyone else?s.

Without one, I?ll probably get by with the standard lovely sunsets, landscapes with buffalo and farmer ploughing the rice field and the basket weavers??.nothing that I couldn?t get at the souvenir shop?s postcard stand for 20 cents a piece (in which case, I should?ve just left all the cameras at home and just buy a stack of postcards) (sidenote: which is what Salon Photography is all about....to end up as 20 cent postcards)


The End

Postscript: Good equipment helps, definitely. It often inspires confidence (at least in me). But quite honestly, I can?t step up to the starting line of a 5 mile cross-country run with NO training but looking all pretty with the latest running shoes and loaded up on good happy thoughts hoping to do well?..

Unless of course it?s my Pub?s Annual Charity Beer Belly Run for beer drinkers who weigh in above 90kgs. Ed.