So I have been trying to write this blog for over a week now, and each time I only make it a few lines, get incredibly bummed out, and hit the delete key. A good friend of mine passed away 2 weeks ago at the young age of 19 in a sailing accident. The adage “It’s not tragic to die doing something that you love,” doesn’t seem like a sufficient consolation.
This got me thinking of how I live my life, and do I make the most of everything. Sure there is a chance that it could be all taken away from you like that. I buy into this lyric from a song “I rather live my life in regret than not take part in it.”
There is the finality that comes with death, which I cannot really grasp. The death of P.J. showed me what a tremendous effect he had on the lives of so many people at such a young age. What kind of effect do I have on people? When I am long gone there will be gigabytes of images and boxes of prints and tear sheets left over, and maybe someone will see them and say, “Hey this kid wasn’t that bad of a photographer and a heck of a guy too.”
Take for instance this photo I shot over a year and a half ago of P.J. and my sister before prom. I had another paying gig that day that I turned down to photograph them and my sister’s friends before prom. At this time, shooting only freelance with limited clients, I didn’t really have the money to turn down a paying job, but I understand this whole American idea of the dream high school prom, and the importance of being their for your family. After a few hours of dealing with my sister, who can be temperamental to say the least, I was pretty fed up with her and her endless bitching. So we head out to this park, and at first I’m looking at the sun and the angles and seeing that the light it’s going to be nearly perfect. Then I see that the park we are going to is covered with trees not really allowing any light in except for a few concentrated areas. So after about 10 minutes of scouting and thinking about how I am going to shoot this with a limited selection of glass (yes I only took out a 300 2.8 and 16 -35 2.8) I settle on this one area that you can fit 3 people comfortably into the frame, and start shooting exposing for the skin tones planning on having the background fall of dramatically. This was the final result.
This got me thinking of how I live my life, and do I make the most of everything. Sure there is a chance that it could be all taken away from you like that. I buy into this lyric from a song “I rather live my life in regret than not take part in it.”
There is the finality that comes with death, which I cannot really grasp. The death of P.J. showed me what a tremendous effect he had on the lives of so many people at such a young age. What kind of effect do I have on people? When I am long gone there will be gigabytes of images and boxes of prints and tear sheets left over, and maybe someone will see them and say, “Hey this kid wasn’t that bad of a photographer and a heck of a guy too.”
Take for instance this photo I shot over a year and a half ago of P.J. and my sister before prom. I had another paying gig that day that I turned down to photograph them and my sister’s friends before prom. At this time, shooting only freelance with limited clients, I didn’t really have the money to turn down a paying job, but I understand this whole American idea of the dream high school prom, and the importance of being their for your family. After a few hours of dealing with my sister, who can be temperamental to say the least, I was pretty fed up with her and her endless bitching. So we head out to this park, and at first I’m looking at the sun and the angles and seeing that the light it’s going to be nearly perfect. Then I see that the park we are going to is covered with trees not really allowing any light in except for a few concentrated areas. So after about 10 minutes of scouting and thinking about how I am going to shoot this with a limited selection of glass (yes I only took out a 300 2.8 and 16 -35 2.8) I settle on this one area that you can fit 3 people comfortably into the frame, and start shooting exposing for the skin tones planning on having the background fall of dramatically. This was the final result.
I went from being extremely pissed off to intrigued by the challenge of making a beauty of an image. There were many frames from this shoot that were really nice, including a huge print of my sister and her roommate that hangs in their house, but this one frame says so much. It shows two best friends, neither of them were really the “prom” type sharing a laugh. A frame like this cannot be staged, but is a moment that is captured, that my sister will have forever.
At the funeral reception last Tuesday, there was a slide show playing, and people got up and shared stories. There were so many great ones to share, many of them too inappropriate to tell in front of 1500 people. My sister doesn’t like speaking to large crowds, my dad far too choked up to say anything, so I took the mic. And said a few words, but none as lasting as that image.
I guess the bottom line of this incoherent post, is that as a photographer it is your job to put everything you have into every picture you make. Whether it is a tedious industrial shoot of some products, or the sun setting over the Pacific, you owe it to yourself and those who will see your work. Be proud of the photos you make, and don’t just settle on setting your camera to program and clicking the shutter hoping that you might get lucky and capture something. Make something compelling, thought provoking and beautiful, you never know when you are going to make your last photograph.
<3
1 comments:
Nice words Alex...mw
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