So often I meet people who enjoy photography and they ask me for tips about how they might become professionals.
“Why would you want to do that?” I reply, sounding I’m sure like the biggest, crankiest grumpasaurus ever. “Why would you want to take something you enjoy simply for the doing of it and make it into a job?”
I don’t know whether or not people get the point I’m trying to make about the difficulties inherent in making a living at something that is one’s passion, not to mention the muddy water one wades into when combining art and commerce.
Maybe the two pictures posted here will help me make my point. I was shooting a wedding last weekend and these photographs -- which I happen to like very
much -- were images that presented themselves at points in the day when I was in nose-to-the-grindstone mode, shooting more-obvious, must-have photographs. Fortunately my newspaper years gave me the ability to shoot this picture over here, then spin around for that moment over there, with reasonable hopes of getting both.
For me these two pictures are lovely and I’m very happy I saw them. They'll add a feeling of humanity and a sense of place to other pictures I shot that day.
I feel fortunate that after 30-some years of shooting photographs as my living, I've learned the balancing act that allows me to please my clients, as well as myself.
