“Pick”ing My Brain

Yesterday was interesting as the second of 2 situations where I was NOT the photographer.  My wife, Carolyn, and I attended a planning meeting at my old church for our upcoming wedding.  ”What’s that?  Doesn’t the word wife imply you’re already married?”  Yes, you’re correct.  Let me explain before I get to the subject of this post.

Nearly a year ago, on March 7th of 2011, Carolyn and I drove to Kahoka Missouri and got married before a judge.  Since we eloped, nobody knew about it before hand and, thus, didn’t have an opportunity to share in the experience.  When my old church advertised about a free wedding day, we applied and, though they didn’t consider circumstances like ours when they advertised, they eventually agreed to include us in the event.  The church is providing pretty much everything at no cost to the couples, including the photographer.

As a wedding photographer, it was a little strange being on the other side of the table from the woman that would be handling the shoot.  Several years ago, as we were just starting PhotoPicks, I attended a wedding photographed by a man I now call friend.  I studied his “process”, then, and learned a lot that we eventually incorporated into our wedding shoots.  Now, I was being walked through the process that would be our wedding – I didn’t fess up to being a wedding photographer until near the end of the meeting.

In a similar fashion, we were photographed recently for the church directory of our new church home.  As the photographer moved us through our poses, I found myself jumping behind him in my mind and taking over his eyes and hands to do things like I would.

It’s always been very difficult for me to be in front of the camera, but it’s especially hard now that I work behind the camera.  I’m sure it’s pretty much the same for other photographers – at least that’s the consensus of those I’ve talked about it with.  I know I can capture the character of a person and show them in their best light (pun intended as always), but see myself as impossible for another photographer to get a hold of with a camera lens.  Fact is, though, I know it can be done – the Olan Mills photographer did fine and I’m sure the woman shooting our wedding will do a bang-up job.

These recent experiences have reminded me of what life is like as the subject of a photographer’s art.  Our clients are not unfeeling brick and mortar, unaffected by our judging perusal.  Nor are they lifeless objects to be endlessly tweaked into position for the perfect shot.  No matter where we are in our profession – amateur, enthusiast or seasoned veteran – we need to be mindful of the fact that portrait work involves living, breathing & emoting people who are likely fearful, self-conscious & anxious about the outcome.  Once in a while, we need to be the client so we can make OUR clients’ experience a better one.

Being a social creature, new people I encounter often pose the question, “What do you do?” I usually answer, “Well…I have 2 businesses, actually – web development and photography.” Why is it that most people appear to be sorry they asked?

Sometimes, I think it’s the web developer part of the answer that throws people off. Maybe they’re thinking that, because this classifies me as a geek, we can’t possibly have anything further to discuss. It’s certainly rare for someone to ask further about it, so I know it’s not going to being a conversation starter.

The thing is, I usually get the same response when I leave off the web developer side of the equation. If someone does inquire further, it’s usually with, “Oh……Do you do portraits?” It’s a major battle within at this point to keep my wiseguy side from responding, “Actually, no…You couldn’t pay me to do portrait work!”  No, I refrain and usually say something like, “Yes, and pretty much anything else involved with photography.”  I’m beginning to wonder if I shouldn’t let my wiseguy side have his day once to see what happens.  Perhaps the shock on the person’s face might be the opening to an interesting conversation about the services I offer.  But I’ve strayed from my main message a bit, so I’ll address this matter in another post.

The fact is, rather than reacting with real interest, inevitably the person gets a ‘deer-in-headlights’ look on their face and noticeably search for a new topic to switch to.   Do I grow horns at the mention of the word, ‘photographer’?  Do they suddenly get a whiff of my breath?  What gives here???

So, if it’s not the horns or my breath, what is putting people off when I tell them I’m a photographer?  Not only is it a business for me, it’s one of great passions!  Have I been toning that down too much?  Should I be leaking a bit of my passion out when I declare that I’m a photographer?  Is my lack of enthusiasm a statement to them in opposition to the fact that this is what I really want to be doing with my life?  I have tested this theory on occasion and the results have varied, so the jury’s still out on this in my book.

What I really think is going on lies deep within most people’s psyche.  I don’t know about you, but I hate having my picture taken.  Just saying it invokes a primitive fear of loss – my picture being taken.  Capture is a better word, as it implies I had a chance of preventing it.  Take sounds like I had no choice in the matter and someone more powerful than I has taken advantage of me.  Just thinking about it makes me cringe!!!

This ties into most people’s experience of being photographed.  It most often has involved being ‘posed’ in an awkward position and having to smile when it’s the last thing you feel like doing, especially when you’re next to someone you’d rather not be in the same town as, let alone sitting/standing next to!  Or maybe it’s the yearly drudgery of your grade school photograph, knowing you’re going to look like a dork and your parents will be moaning when they see how much the cheapest package of prints is going to cost them.  When I consider this, it’s small wonder people don’t shoot me on sight!!!

Maybe the answer is a new title to replace ‘photographer’.  How about ‘immortalizer’?  Perhaps ‘portrait specialist’ would be better?  What’s your suggestion?  My future introductions are awaiting your ideas.

Just finished my new header for this blog. Let me know what you think.

No…this isn’t an article about the advanced features of Google Search. It has to do with a place to find images to capture. No…I’m not talking about downloading images from the Internet, either.

What I’m talking about is lifting your eyes above their normal viewing level to see things you’re missing.  It’s normal to fixate on things situated on the ‘horizon’, but what about the other parts of your sphere of sight?  If you have small children or cats in your household, you quickly learn to look down as you walk for fear of stepping on an unnoticed tail or suffering the agony of a Lego™ lodged into your instep.  If you’re 6 foot or taller, you probably are on the lookout for nefarious cabinet doors lying in wait to ambush you around every corner.  Other than that, I used to never notice much above or below eye level.  When I finally did, 2 new worlds opened up for me.

This unusual blossom was found at the Quad City Botanical Center during a group trip with the camera club I belong to. When I posted this shot, everybody wanted to know where I found the plant. It was hanging down, just inside the entrance, and I’m the only one on the group to look up and see it.

I promise that, if you give this a try, so many more image opportunities will open up for you.  What I do is to constantly track down, track level, track up, track level, etc.  You never know when a bird may be circling above or an interesting critter crawling below.  Besides, this will give new meaning to you when someone says, “things are looking up for you”. d;^{D

I have finally gotten around to starting the PhotoPicks Photography & Art blog, ‘Pick’ing My Brain.  It will feature lessons I have learned while making photographs and videos for over 40 years.  Hopefully, there will be something of use to other photographers sharing the wonderful world of the Internet with me. d:^{D