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| Hiking purgatory chasm in 2007 while at JWU - taken with my pocket camera by a friend. |
I remember being a teen, well some of it. I remember thinking my parents knew nothing about the world, and that I was always going to be as cool as I was in high school. And then I grew a brain and moved on. I was told I could not march with my class at graduation because I had taken too many alternative courses for home schooling and did not meet the number of requirements for a diploma from the high school that had once told my parents I had no hope of ever going to college.
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| Macro Photography of college landscaping post rainstorm - my "artistic" period in 2005/06. |
Three months later I started college and held a 4.0 GPA and a part time job in a huge city. I relaxed by taking photos with a little P&S (point and shoot) at the school stable. I excelled in business classes and learned skills that make running the studio much easier, but never really thought much about photography beyond taking some fun images. I remember thinking that the exhibits in the art school across the street where a joke at times - I still have no idea how a toilet seat with a sledge hammer wedged in it is supposed to make me "feel" something or than confused.
I take my photography seriously only in how it is something that can always be improved upon. I don't claim it needs to be an expression of the world, just that it should capture something worth a second look. I certainly don't feel the need to go ruining perfectly good toilets just to make a pretty picture.
I say this because I think there are some pieces of "art" that are not always worth sharing. I don't think it is fair to go charging a person hundreds of dollars for images of their family taken with a pocket camera that you claim makes you a professional. I also feel that there is something to be said for trying to hone your craft before going to charge. I may not used the most advanced camera out on the market, but I do use advanced lens attachments and take the time to practice with them before using them on paid shoots.
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| Macro Photography from the New York Botanical Gardens in 2010. This was taken as part of the test images for my back-up camera. |
I enjoy taking photography of the natural world to relax. On occasion I even sell prints of the rare shots that I am comfortable sharing with others. I take portraits seriously though. If I am paying a model, or being paid to make something that a client will hang on their wall, it had better look like it was worth the money they are paying for my time and services.
I write this today as part of a a warm up to my next post concerning the photography of the American Olympic team that has been covered on Reddit and other major sites. I will post an analysis that I have been working on later, but this is partially based on those images, and partially on a comment from a friend on her social media about how it seems becoming a "photographer" is the new thing to do.
