Photography

To say that I like taking pictures would be an understatement. I LOVE taking pictures. I am passionate about taking pictures. I am consumed. It's who I am. It's what I do. Last week I drove by an old shed in the middle of a bean field, somewhere out in the country and last night I just had to hop in my car and go and find it again because it was stuck in my mind. 

That's the kind of photos I like taking. Ones that catch my eye or my imagination. Ones where the colour speaks to me, and even more importantly, the lighting.  I get downright excited about that.


I like to capture things. It's like hunting or discovering treasure. I like to do the photo journalism thing too, catching the moments that tell a story. And I absolutely love taking photos of faces as they go about life.


The other kind of photography, where you have to pose people and set them up with the perfect lighting where you have to figure it out or invent it rather than have it call out to you, is not a favourite activity.  All my Inadequacies scream to me then.

They say: 'You have no idea in the world what you're doing! Who are you kidding - you are NOT a photographer. You do not have the right equipment. You don't have a professional type camera. You don't even own a flash.' Actually - they're wrong about that - I bought one for a wedding I'm doing this weekend, it's just that I've haven't been able to bring myself to open it.  They dog me anyway: 'You know you DON'T have proper lighting. You don't have the technical knowledge or the education and you know darn well that you well that you have major mental blocks when it comes to f stops and apertures and that sort of thing.' Now, that is the truth. I spend hours each and every day playing with photos, but I have to confess, I cannot absorb the technical stuff. I have a rebellious nature about instructions and subconsciously I seem to go to great lengths just to figure out things my own way. In my own little world, it works. It's when there's an expectation beyond that, those irritating, persistent Inadequacies go on a tangent. 

But yesterday I had to shove them down and get on with the job of trying to capture my precious wee grandbabes.  After the fiasco with Spencer in June - five hours and only one photograph, I have been letting the Inadequacies win and have stuck to the fields. I keep thinking 'He's still little - we'll do it one of these days.' I thought that because he was such a little guy, we'd get to keep him tiny for longer.  Well, seeing him with Georgia yesterday was a huge wake up call. I absolutely have to get past all those issues and capture those sweet faces quickly.

It was a three person job. Over two hours for with only one set up. Almost three hundred pictures and just a couple that are usable. Again, confirmation that this type of photography is NOT what I can do, should do or want to do. It is best left to the professionals and I will stay as far away from it as I can. But for my own grandbabes, I'm going to have to make an exception. They hopefully won't be judging and evaluating the process.


If someone was to be observing how we got this done - the table cloths and the coffee table and the desk lamp, they would surely side with my Inadequacies.


BUT ... it has got to be done. So, Inadequacies, leave me alone - our babies are growing. We're going to give it another shot today.

As an example of my usual 'stretch' in not having the right props and having to come up with something creative afterwards ... have a look at his covering.  Of course, I can't put fully naked pictures of our babe splayed - newborn is one thing, but 12 weeks - well, that could be downright embarrassing for a guy. Any clues to what his 'blanket' is?