My attempt at my first blog. What do I write about? Common sense would say photography or art. Am I an authority on photography? Art? Computers? PhotoShop? I have this feeling while writing my blogs that I’m standing naked in the middle of a group of Harley Riders on their bikes and they’re revving their engines. I’m sure I’ll be scrutinized for my dangling participles, (reference again to being naked in front of Harley Riders), punctuation, misplaced metaphors, and so on. To be honest, I’m not too concerned about the writing as I am about photography being shown.
I did so much writin’ when I was at Iowa State I formed a permanent writer’s block. Heck, I built an enclosure to protect myself from ever writing again. I hate…hated writing.
Supposedly, my business and I will get more exposure, no pun intended, if I write a blog. I’ll get more hits on my web site. Viewers will see I’m serious about my craft. Huh? So, looking at a few hundred, a few hundred thousand photos over the years, 37 years, doesn’t show that I’m passionate about photography?
I have a friend on LinkedIn that’s not a huge social media fan. He told me when he ‘connected’ with me to, “write a blog, tell people how great you are and how to run their business so they can be as successful as you”. I don’t want my blog or information to be taken that way. I don’t read those blogs myself. Am I an expert? I don’t know. I feel confident that I know my craft and can concept a photograph. That I can work my way out of a tough situation and produce a great image.
I’ve taught classes and want to teach more classes in my studio to amateur photographers. I want the students to have confidence in what they photograph. To own their digital camera instead of them feeling the camera owns them.
I’m always striving to learn new techniques, lighting ideas, computer software updates. Does that still make me a student? Can a student be an expert and train others? I’m thirsty for knowledge about all photography and love watching what happens as digital photography progresses. I’ve found that I used to look at the pictures in a book and not read. Yes, I know the joke, “We give you books and give you books and all you do is look at the pictures”? Yep, that was me, I really didn’t study too hard in school. But, I looked at the photos and thought, “Who took those and where? Why that angle? Why that lighting, what type of lighting, what camera, what film?” And so on.
In upcoming blogs I’ll show more photos, this is about photography. I’ll share recent photo shoots. Discuss situations, problems and what I did to come up with a photo. I’ll share articles and web sites of interest.
Keep checking in!
Thanks!
