Is a portrait expensive?

Cameras and equipment. What can I say? I always need something else.....always. Some days I wonder if any one person has enough money to have a photography business. When I first started shopping around for photography equipment I realized that everything is expensive. Once I educated myself about quality camera gear and looked at the prices, I couldn't help but feel extorted.

If only that was where it stopped... That is just the camera and lenses and all "fun stuff". When I started being educated about the business of photography, it became so much easier to understand why photographer charge so much! Lets not forget that we aren't even talking about the education or time that we had to put in to get to that point or even the hours that we put in doing our job in the first place.

People always ask us photographers how much that camera that we are carrying around cost us. There are two problems with this question. 1.)Why do I want to tell the random stranger that I have never met before that they could buy a car with what we have in my camera bag??? I mean really, that just doesn't sound intelligent. 2.) I don't want to admit it to myself!

The camera is one of the cheapest investments that we make. It's sad, but true. There is so many little things that are essential to digital photography and none of them are cheap! At the school that I am attending, we have this saying that will make that average person question our sanity. "200 dollars, that's cheap" I even cringe when I say that!

Just to finish off this thought process, let me actually tell you why I started writing this blog. All this talk about how expensive this business is. All this talk about how the camera body is one of the cheapest investments in photography. When my camera body breaks, I am out of business. Get a second one! Today, was the third time my camera body has broken. (I really don't understand why my professional "I can pound in nails with it" camera body broke for the third time in under a year, but it did) Just some food for thought for all those people who wonder about why their portraits cost so much.

To Clone or not to Clone...

Lately, I am living in Photoshop. To those of you who know me, you know that that isn't a comfortable place for me to live. My photography tends to be real. I want to photograph it the way I saw it. Embellishing is just not my style I guess.

Photoshop is a crazy world where anything is possible if you can think it up and then take the time to create it. Some people flourish in it. I don't.

Don't get me wrong, I think Photoshop is an amazing tool. I just don't want to use it much. My teachers refer to Photoshop time as butt time. I couldn't agree more. I would much rather think for two minutes in the field than spend an hour fixing that thing that would have been gone if I moved 2 feet to the left.

Then there is the fact that Photoshop can be used to create a personal vision or style to their photography. This is the side that I kind of understand but have not yet figured out how to apply. Maybe I am too real for it. Maybe I just haven't seen someone with the style I want to emulate.. Either way, I think it is the biggest thing that is lacking in my photography. I'm hoping that someday soon I can identify where my direction is because I have been looking far too long!

The power of people

Last weekend was one of the best weekends I have had since I was here. I spent most of it out shooting but hardly any of the time was I further than a half mile from my house. For anyone who has seen quite a bit of my photography, they know that I don't shoot people that much. I think it is mostly my introvert personality. I really need to get over that.

Putting a person in a photo adds so much story. There is story in there expression, their posture, or their hands. It's refreshing to shoot without really knowing what is going to happen or even if you do, getting that decisive moment. I love shooting weddings. As the photographer, I am given a chance to share in the emotion of their day and capturing that is an amazing feeling. Who knows, I may be a closet people shooter. If that is the case, I better get out there and do it more!

To Spew or not to Spew....

I was driving around with one of my friend's last night talking about my lack of blogging skills and she used a term that is exactly what I am trying to avoid.

Emotional vomit.

It's not a very pretty phrase, but it is exactly what I am going to try and avoid in my blogging. I tend to be a deep thinker and I figured that I would avoid trying to scare anyone who reads these away by not writing that way very often. Although, I still don't quite understand why anyone is going to want to read these. That is something that I am going to have to work on I guess, either my writing skills or understanding that some people just don't have anything better to do than read my random incoherent thoughts.

Back to emotional vomit....

I think that anyone who hears those words can put a picture in their head. I want people to enjoy my perspective not walk away thinking that I unloaded on them. Too many thoughts can just be depressing and I am trying to work on being an optimist. Because of the emerging optimist, I will try not to emotionally vomit too often.

I thought I would finally say what I am planning on writing in these blogs. The title kind of tells all I think. Just to clarify for anyone who needs it.

Life- everyone has one. I just thought I would share mine with you so you can see a bit through my journey through it.

Thoughts- this will probably be my rants and emotional vomit category.

Photography- I thought I could share my thoughts and stories of trying to become a photographer/artist. By this I mean, moments of what I am doing, stories and people that have inspired me, and anything else that pertains.

Lastly, I will share some of my work on the site.

I realize that this should have been two blogs instead of one but, oh well. That is why I am practicing. And so it begins...