And you call your self a photographer...

Impending doom...

My right had has been bothering me for sometime, meds, flexing, night brace, none of it really helped. So a few weeks ago, we started to go down the path of getting real tests done to find out what the problem is. Drum roll,, Carpal Tunnel. To the point of, I need surgery in order to keep from having nerve damage. Oh Joy. Surgery is two Days away, I'm not looking forward to the pain, or the healing process, but I am very much looking forward to being able to do things with my right hand and not have it fall asleep any more.

Good things are that we have a wonderful team, and they are pulling together for one or two events till I can hold a camera again. I am sure it will be a learning lesson for them, and me for that matter. I have never not held a camera at an event for the entire time.

Melissa has threatened me with beatings if I so much as pick up a camera, maybe if I'm lucky I can sneak in a few shots when she is not looking.

You call your self a photographer...

There are a long running set of posts on photography groups that read something like the following

Question "How do I know when I am ready to become a professional photographer?"

Inevitably someone will answer, "If you have to ask, you are not ready!"

I can't tell you how much I hate this, and the mind set behind it. To me this reeks like an old fishing pier of the embedded professional that just cant fathom how someone could start into this field and call them selves a professional with out background, education, association, intern time, being poor and impoverished for an extended period of time. It all goes back to that using your milk money to buy a camera and if you never did that they you did not learn, you are not ready.

If the adult learning industry and the digital camera boom of the last 10 years has thought us anything, people learn to shoot in different ways. With that understanding, I say anyone that wants to go pro can.

Notice that I did not say, "Anyone that wants to be a successful professional photographer can be one" The key term here is successful, and what you define it as.

If successful is shooting 3 to 4 events a year and getting paid for it, and producing images that your client is happy with, then you are a successful professional photographer.

If successful is shooting 30-50 events a year, getting paid and producing images your clients are happy with, then you are a successful professional photographer.

The question is what can you do, and what is your clients option of your work, and expectation.

Where I will stand behind the idea of you need to know if you are a pro or not is when you take a clients money, there cant be any dough in your mind that you have the props to get the job done. If your unsure of that, then I would suggest building a partnership with an existing pro in your area and spending a few days in their shoes. That time will survey you well to test bed your skills against what a clients expectation is.

Also please keep in mind that being a professional photographer dose not just mean shooting pictures, there is an entire "running" of the business that must take place behind it. Being that most of us are not independilty wealthy...... (Wait, let me check my lottery ticket..... dammit!) This costs money to, so unless you plan on quitting your day job, that means that for at least a while you will be working two jobs. My best recommendation, forget vacations and sleep for a while.

When do you shoot...

Recently I was asked the question "When do you have your camera with you?" My response, "all the time"

If your goal is to really get used to your camera, set it to Manual mode, and take it everywhere. Take it to school, work, bed, parties, sporting events, everywhere, and SHOOT with it. Fill the card with nine thousand bad shots. Time and experience will teach you that there is never a bad time to have a camera along for the ride, before doing this there has been more times when I have thought "Man I wish I had my camera, that would be a really cool shot"

The best way I can releate this topic is by telling a story I learned from Annie Leibovitz. (hehe, they way I said that it sounds like she told me it personally, yea, well lets go with that)

Her partner Susan Sontag was dieing of Myelodysplastic syndrome, after being treated with a bone marrow transplant and having the transplant fail, she was flown home to live out the rest of her days. Annie, being a person of true photographic blood had her camera along for the trip.

While taking her off the plane on the ride home, Annie photographed it:

(I will post some images for support on my site, but not this one)

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd0L5BK85DAWjW7iWYhOri0OEKKHxDdfa2NLLG1IqEjgjhtE6lN8AB7apF6KQrFDunV2FNd9q1hyphenhyphenwavFKHL1iZMNJS_8j3yNlokaouSOH-ZIkVtQWYmbehZrIjjLP-DuY9aRRbxPOOCUGx/s1600-h/sontag_lg.jpg

How many of us would have the presence of mind to photograph an event like this? Some say its disrespectful, rude, and intrusive.

My question is, is death not a part of life? So why not celebrate, display, and document all of someones life?

Is photojournalism only capturing the parts of life that we find happy?

Or is it in fact showing all of the human condition, in all its glory and shame?