What I Learned About Life While Taking Photographs

My life has changed so much since my Dad gave me one of his old Canon EOS cameras and a good lens. I've been places, done things, and met people I would never have thought possible before I started taking pictures. I've also learned some things, and NOT the things I thought I would learn either. For example; I have never really learned how to properly use a camera. I have only a foggy, indistinct notion of what all the buttons and wheels do on my cameras. What I DO know is photoshop. With a very few exceptions I let the camera's computer brain figure out the best exposure and I do the rest, as they say, "in post." So, in no particular order and with illustrations, here is a short (hopefully) post on what I have learned from photography.





1. A good photographer has an interesting life. It doesn't matter how technically perfect you are, if you aren't passionate about something (or several somethings)  you are willing to go to GREAT lengths to show the world, you will never be a great photographer. You can't teach passion, but the good news is, everyone I have ever met is passionate about SOMETHING. If you love something, it will show when you photograph it.  Big Bend is one of my very favorite places on earth! I will drive for 8 hours straight across some of the most desolate parts of the U.S. I have ever visited, with no cell service for hours, any season in any kind of weather, with no advance notice, just to be in that place that I love.  I am by no means trying to say that I am a great photographer, au contraire mes amis, but I do believe my love for this place shows in the photos I take there.



2. The best shots are the ones you never expected to get. When the nightclubs I had worked in for over ten years, closed forever in September of 2008, I took my camera to shoot pics on the last night. I had a bunch of shots in mind that I wanted to take to remember the places and people by. There was no way I could have anticipated the sheer emotion and revelry that happened that night.  All the shots I anticipated shooting palled in comparison to  this one of the crowd (over a thousand people) in one of the clubs looking up at the lighting booth, stamping, clapping and chanting "Thank you!" This shot means more to me than any of the others I took that night.




3. Time changes everything. I took a bunch of shots of this big dead wasp. I worked hard to get a perfect macro with crystal clear focus and the attention on the dead wasp's stinger since it was so dramatic and scary looking. Several YEARS later I was looking through the old folder of insect shots and found this other shot I had taken that day. I had overlooked it at first since I was focused so hard on the whole drama thing, but now this second shot is one of my favorite shots of all time. I love the soft ethereal quality and the colors; beauty and death, beauty IN death. Far more interesting than just another wasp stinger I think.



4. Most of the time its all about luck. Taking pics of performers and lights is all about just shooting a LOT of shots. When so many unpredictable elements in a shot have to be just right, all you can do is shoot and pray. Shoot A LOT and pray.



5. Take your camera along... ALWAYS. You never know when coolness will happen. I took this shot while waiting to pick my husband up at the airport (his plane was delayed and I had to park in the standby lot next to this field of lovely cows).

OK, so next I'll do a post about the things I haven't managed to learn about photography, like how to effectively market my work, and how not to compare myself to others and feel depressed, and all about those helpful wheels and buttons I should really know how to use if I want to say I am a photographer... but not now, that's for next time.