In college, my friend and I used to always talk about success and what defines it - was it money, or the accumulation of assets, or power - we had a lot of theories, but eventually it came down to freedom. Freedom to not have to work, or not have to adhere to any set schedule or routine. After we started working fulltime jobs, this philosophy only got more reaffirmed in our heads. So then the theory was solidified - in very simplistic/laymans/exact terms, success for us is defined as the freedom to go for a long drive in a nice car on a tuesday afternoon at 2pm, and have a beer - any tuesday. Silly? Maybe. Awesome? Absolutely.

So I immediately thought about this when I saw this scene set up for me. I couldn't have set it up better. It was tuesday, around 2pm-ish, and they were sitting there - chilling - and having a beer. Ok, so maybe there were tourists like me, but maybe not. They looked way too familiar to be tourists, but anyway - my college concept was realized in front of me. All I have to do now is to strive for it :)

A Drive through Switzerland

A drive through Switzerland is everything that I thought it would be. Mountains, lakes and the requisite chocolate stops makes this one of the more memorable road trips in Europe.

Cliché

Aside from the pristine beaches, there is another side of Jamaica landscape that I noticed when I ventured out from the sheltered resort area. When you venture inland, there is a plethora of other scenery that is very different than the tourism posters of Jamaica. I happened to walk off the hotel property, and stumbled upon the edge of golf course which was not really part of it, but still was very well taken care of. Either way, anybody would be more than ecstatic to have it as their backyard.

On a different note, I wanted to mention something about photographic cliches. Photographic cliches are images that are created with motifs that are very common, such as sunrise/sunset beaches, mountaineous landscapes, rocks in water, autumn leaves, white fences - and lone trees. I've probably rattled off about 70% of the recent pictures you've seen on the web (and possibly on my blog). The truth is that in the current digital age, and the easy access to camera equipment/technology, its pretty hard to be original, especially for amateurs like myself. All this is a little depressing unless you're a creative genius, and so the philosophy has to change. So if you're not going to create the next original masterpiece, then I guess the thing to take note off is whether you're having fun, and whether you believe in what you created (or are creating) - IMHO, its all worthwhile as long as that requirement is met. Also, I strongly believe that once you are having fun and believe in what you're doing, you will end up creating that masterpiece at some point. Yes, the lone tree motif has been done many times before, but I'm fairly confident its not that rampant in landscapes of Jamaica (I hope). This is my thought process in the ever changing, saturated world of photography of today. What is your approach?