Life after Digital Photography

Eventually we just learn that we have to stop hiding the imperfections and wearing our battle scars with pride.

It's like my photography.  I have learned, through years of painstaking, oh - misery, that I really have no interest in taking posed family photography just to make money.  Taking a family, that I have never met and know nothing about their family dynamic, their love for each other or how their relationships work, and awkwardly posing them to look as natural, care-free and happy as my pinterest imagination can think up, is not art.  It's freakin torture for all involved.

I do love, however, snapping families that I know, that I love.  I treat it like a big present for them and try to catch the in betweens and fun, as I already know their story - I just have to tell it.  It is kind of why I like shooting weddings the most.  The day is happening and my job is just to record it.  There is very little need from me for any posing, any setting of the scene - it is already there! the moments are happening! hit the shutter when no one realizes they have a camera in your face! that makes a great photograph.

Clients are always asking me where is the best spot around to take pictures. Again, I may not be the best person to ask for advice about this. It really doesn't matter where - it can be in a back alley for all I care. The answer I give them is the best place to shoot is wherever you will feel most comfortable. I'm shooting you, after all, not the beautiful mansion where I will photoshop the tar out of you and place you perfectly in front of statue, creating the ultimate portrait. I am just not that photographer.

We need to pick a place where you can relax, laugh, be yourself. Where the background doesn't matter and it doesn't have to compete for a focal spot in the frame. Sitting in the sun at high noon in August is not going to make for a great picture - not matter what lens I use. My goal is to capture you feeling happy, feeling beautiful, and I've found that that recipe comes out of the oven so much better than anything else I've tried. And I've spent quite a bit a time in the kitchen on this one.
Yet lately I have been asking myself if I am a photographer or a photo editor.  That is the way the market has become, it seems.  We obsess over last detail of our appearance, spray tan and cover up anything less than  magazine perfect, and smile real big.  Smile so big that we don't let others see the real us, our true beauty.  The beauty that comes from experience, acceptance, love, joy, hurt, and pain.  These people beg me to photoshop out their laugh-lines, their scars - all so they can post them on their social media sites and prove their perfection.  That's not photography, my friends.  It's lala land.  It's a facebook album.

Thus my gradual abandonment of photoshop prep-work with a memory card and my adoption of film.  And reality, for that matter.  Film only captures what fills the frame.  Truly frreezes a real moment in time.  It's raw. It's grainy. It's scary - not nearly as reliable as digital.  It's sometimes blurry, sometimes dark.  Its just life. And I love it.