Posted on March 2, 2010 | 5 Comments
I sit here in tears after reading my good friend, Shaun’s most recent blog post and I know that I have to share it with all of you. Shaun, his fiance Stephanie, and his dad, Gord are all photograpahers whom I know and love. Shaun and I had the pleasure of attending a lifechanging, business altering workshop by the wonderful Jesh deRox a couple of years ago. It is an experience I reflect on often–especially right now as I head to the largest photography convention and hope to be able to hear Jesh speak once again. Just now as I read Shaun’s blog post ‘Everyone has a story‘, I knew that I had to share it with you.
He’s right…everyone does have a story. I picked up a camera about 4 years ago when I was unhappy with the images others were taking of my uncooperative daughter and I knew that there had to be an easier way. It slowly became an all consuming passion–keeping me up at night(seriously), soaking in as much as I can. Do you know what is great about photography? Aside from the things that Shaun speaks of like the ability for it to allow you to recall certain events emotionally, as a photographer there is always something new to learn. I love that. It makes it easy to stay interested and excited and passionate because there is always something new for me to try.
Something that Shaun spoke of really hit home for me. Being a woman, I hate having my picture taken. I know that most people consider this to be beyond painful. I find myself always wishing I was thinner or younger looking or that my hair looked better. One of the greatest gifts of being a photographer for me is watching other women struggle through this same thing and then realizing that all I see when I look at their images is beauty…the beauty of the love they feel for their family or that they feel for her. And, it made me realize that there needs to be more images of me–depsite all of my hesitations. That I need these images for my children and for their children and so on. I have often said when parents are reluctant to have their picture taken that I am not taking it for them. I am taking it for their children. And, so despite the fact that I feel old and chubby most days, I am excited to be having our own family images done in April. Nervous about what to wear(but I think I found the right jeans today), but excited to see the love my family feels for each other in print. And on my walls.
I encourage everyone to read Shaun’s blog post. I feel particularly touched as he has asked me and my lovely friend, Alicia Price to be the photographers at his wedding to the lovely, Stephanie. I can’t wait.
Just felt like sharing tonight,
Dana
Thank you for this. I too struggle with being in front of the lens, but I only see the beauty and love for life in each person I have the privilege of capturing. Oddly enough, my kids wanted to play in my studio tonight after my session and so out of the blue we just started setting the self timer and took pictures of us together. They were loving it. And although I struggle with the issues I have with myself, they just see me as their mom and should have pictures to show that mom was actually around them when they were small.
Dana, you’re so sweet. Short too, but we wouldn’t have it any otherway. The spark you give off when you’re around people is so lovely, that it’s not fair if you hide that in front of a camera.
You are beautiful. Inside and out. Truly.
Dana – I think you said some very important things there, and I think Shaun has gotten us all thinking about what is truly important in life. I’ve had a really tough week – almost packed it in and sold my gear actually. His post had me in tears last night too and today I took some images today and have decided to push through my rough patch and forge onward.
I think as photographers we all hit “the wall” at some point in our careers. I’ve had more than my share of walls and thought “I can’t do this any more” literally. Get a regular job and just watch TV at night instead of processing images until 2am. But that doesn’t make me happy, or fill my soul. I spent 3 days loafing around, napping feeling sorry for myself – and I was bored, bored, bored.
Besides doing what fills us up, our passion – I sometimes forget how important what we do is to the people we photograph and their families. We did photos on the beach of the RV owners of the Texas RV park we’re currently staying at the other night (with their 3 vintage corvettes) and yesterday she came and asked if they could take US to dinner tomorrow night – our choice of where to eat. They really liked the images I did of them (did some HDR and compositing) I guess. I underestimated what it meant to them.
Thanks Shaun and Dana for reminding us.
our travel blog is http://www.youngsnowbirds.com/ if you’re interested. Sorta a la Ben Willmore.
Dana, love that line about taking photos ‘for your children’, so true. We need to remember that no matter what we look like, this is how our children will remember us. It’s all about perspective too, in 20 years time we’ll wish we still looked like that.
And photographs are amazing in the way they bring the memories of that point in time to life, it’s really quite incredible. Thanks for sharing!