Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Having fun - the most important part of what we do

Tonight was a good night shooting a high school girls basketball game for a local weekly paper. I was going through the motions of getting the photos that tell the story of the game, having my normal level of enjoyment, when I realized there is more to this than just fulfilling the assignment.. The game was a blowout, and I could have easily left after the third quarter with enough for the paper to use, including some good shots, but decided to stick around until the end and have some fun. I'm glad I did, as I came away with a few photos that will likely end up in my portfolio. The arrangement I have set up with my editor is that I drop the card off with him after a shoot, so I won't get to look through the photos until later this week, but I'm certain I got a few that will be strong portfolio candidates. Once I get a hold of those photos, I will post a few from the game.

We as photographers lose sight of this all too often, as we carry out our assignments day in and day out, shooting only what we need for a story in the paper. Another of my editors (as I shoot for multiple papers) brought this to my attention a couple of days ago, and I decided to make the most of his advice. He said my photos were too rigid, too predictable, and it was apparent that I was not comfortable in the assignment. My normal assignments for the papers deal with sports, but this assignment was to cover the 93rd annual Pennsylvania Farm Show, a first for me. (My photos of the even can be seen here). I was nervous, especially when it comes to getting names and permission to take/publish photos of kids, and it showed. There is no need to get permission or names (other than a roster) when shooting sports, but I was in a whole new world, a world in which I was not comfortable.

While I believe I did an admirable job covering the Farm Show, substantiated by comments from my editor, I know there is always room for improvement in my craft, and I had that opportunity tonight. With "enough" already on the memory card, I knew that the only way to improve was to continue to shoot, to "practice" if you will. Granted the situations were different, as I was not able to work on my issues of asking for permission, but I could work on relaxing, and trying to see the event from a different angle. I took advantage of this opportunity, stayed until the end of the game, and had some fun with my photography.

Take this advice, and relax, have fun with what you do. We all got into this for a love of photography, and that can get lost in the day to day work required to document the situation. Let's return to that love of photography, the love of being creative, and having control over what we do, and create some amazing images.