A Documentary Travel Journal

In a week or so I will accompany my daughter and her family to the area where I grew up in Texas. I do not get back there often. Funerals are usually the motivation so that the photos I grab are related to that event and snapshots of survivors.

This time I will be traveling with three grandchildren, ages 2, 4, and six. The drive is long. They may not handle it well. This may be the last time they ever make the trip since my elders won't be around much longer.  So, I have decided to create a documentary travel journal. It will allow occasional breaks and let the grandchildren participate.

There will be the usual posed family shots. We will note tombstones at various cemeteries. (My family has left few other notable monuments to record or remember.) At my step-mother's farm, I hope to let the kids interact with the wild hogs, roaming deer, and ostriches at the nearby ranch. Perhaps, the fireflies will be out. (My own children slept through them 20 years ago.) Maybe we'll visit the Peter Pan memorial in Weatherford like we did in 1990.

There will be dinosaurs outside of Holbrook, AZ and the LDS temples in Lubbock, Tx., Albuquerque, N.M,and Snowflake, AZ. All of these things will be noted in the photo journal and photographed with the kids in front of them, but the highlight for me will be a visit to Ft. Sumner, N.M. After all, Billy the Kid is buried there. If now one else is impressed, then, they just take a picture of me standing by his grave. I will loan them the camera and they can put my picture in the journal.

Viewing a Photograph

When someone hands us a photograph, it takes only an instant to respond or react. We can take a longer time ruminating over the image, but we make up our mind pretty darn fast.

We forget that a photograph is the capture of an instant in time on film or taken digitally. Sometimes the photo is pleasing. Sometimes it is not. Taken an instant before or an instant after, our reaction might be completely opposite of the one we are experiencing now.

The photographer can use composition, lighting, viewpoint, framing, shutter speed, and depth of field to affect the outcome. When he shoots landscapes, he has the most control. When he brings people into the scene things change. Even when he has the control of elements and poses in the studio, he cannot control a person's self-perception. Shooting people in situations outside the studio puts him at great risk of failure, rejection, and condemnation. There are so many variables that he cannot control. In the instant that the shutter clicks, maybe he will get lucky.

Keep these things in mind when you view a photograph. A moment before or after the click, you were probably beautiful.

Whether or not a photograph is taken outside or taken inside a studio, it is documentary. Posed, you look pretty good because of all that is disguised. Otherwise, you are stuck with awful truth, which may or may not be discomforting. That is how you looked in that instant.

Is Wedding Photography Over-priced?

Personally, I think so. Many of the items connected to the wedding event are over-priced. (I also think my dental  needs are over-priced).

After the wedding and reception are in the past two tangibles remain: the wedding dress (which one may never use or see again) and the photographs. A photographer often uses this to justify his price. They do become memories and relics that brides and families will cherish for years to come (unless there is a divorce). This fact adds value to the price one pays.

The price one pays may include a second or third photographer and/or a videographer in order for one to be able to see the many elements of an event that one misses while being the center of attention. The price also includes matters related to the photographer's gear, insurance, studio, transportation, life style, and, in some cases, child-support. The photographer is probably worth it.

Being cost conscious I look at things from a skewed viewpoint. If I pay $10,000 and only view the photos on my anniversary for the next ten years, the rate is $1000 a year. If  I continue in the same fashion over the years, the rate goes down as long as the marriage lasts. If I view the images 1000 times, each viewing costs me $1. Less viewings than that raise my viewer's fee. If I divorce within 3 years, I may wish I had some of that money in my pocket for current expenses. (In my case, it was an annulment.)

Well, I am just ruminating, being rational in my cash-strapped stage of life. A bride can use whatever criteria she wishes for justifying the price she pays or the photographer she chooses. Price alone may not guarantee memorable images. I doubt that many brides realize that view these pictures in 20 or 30 years will change. Some may cringe when they look back and see how much they paid for photos that are now "dated" and somewhat embarrassing, especially if the images follow the current style instead of being "classic".

Since I will never be the bride, I do not have a real answer to the question.

Alice

I have known Alice ten or twelve years now. She was the school librarian. We’ve laughed together and retired a year apart. We traveled to a conference together. We have sat and talked, joked and pontificated. We have come together over Happy Hour or a simple staff potluck. Hopefully, she has enjoyed me as much as I have enjoyed her.

This weekend she put her family in front of my camera.  I had met Marty, her husband, and tried to imagine the look of them standing side by side because she is definitely short next to him. I felt comfortable when their children and grandchildren gathered at the Mesa Arts Center and let me aim my camera at them.

Any photographer likes an opportunity to take an extended family such as theirs. When a group is as friendly and flexible as this and there are grandchildren among the crowd, it is so easy to have a fun experience.  I never walk away without having learned something new.

A New Career

In June I retired from teaching. It was a second career. Event photography is becoming my third career.

A $15 35mm film camera was my high school graduation present. The photos it produced were beautiful and fulfilled my artistic urges. I loved capturing the events and experiences around me. The camera drowned in Vietnam in 1965.

 I owned other cameras but did not shoot much.  Film and developing were expensive.  When I became a school teacher, I had more disposable income, so I sponsored a camera club for my 6^th grade students.  Interacting with them, sharing their discoveries, and documenting our school and its events restored the thrill of taking pictures.

My Soldier Boy, on his second tour in Iraq, sent me a digital camera for Christmas. It lowered expenses and added immediate gratification.  Motivation, excitement, and fulfillment increased as retirement neared. I could have the freedom to do something I really enjoyed.

Nearly a year into retiring, I am still an “amateur”. This will probably never be a primary source of income. I don’t mind. Amateurs can still earn money while having the freedom to grow.  And it is wonderful to be able to meet the needs of the many people, whom I have known over my years in Mesa.

Wedding Photography is not new.

At the Watertown, N.Y. library I discovered the book Weddings by Barbara Norfleet. Published in 1979 it contained wedding photos, an overview of weddings from the 1800's into the 1970's, and interviews with photographers who had been doing these kinds of shots over multiple generations. It addressed some of my misconceptions.

Weddings have been extravagant affairs for over 100 years. Brides wore white before Queen Victoria. Large numbers in the wedding parties were not unusual.

Pictures included detail and table shots. There were the bouquet toss and the garter toss.The move from studio cameras to "candid" cameras allowed "getting ready" shots.

Speed Graphic 4 by 5 cameras and the handy 35 mm camera led to relaxed, candid shots. If a family member, the bride, or the groom got caught with eyes closed or not facing the camera, oh, well. No Photoshop magic here.

Finally, the photographers interviewed bemoaned the fact that amateurs were threatening their careers since the new cameras were so easy to get and use.Their income was going down. Except for Photoshop and digital cameras, things have not changed much.

Tourist Trap 2

Whenever I travel, I fear people putting the label "tourist" on the photographs I take. I want them to be better than that.

There was nothing to fear in Watertown, NY. It is a small town and had a few monuments and statues. There was lots of Victorian era architecture and a famous battleground somewhere nearby.

The architecture reminded me of movies. There was the "Psycho" house. One for "Pollyanna". Another screamed "Poe". Surely, "The Munsters" had their house here. There were more. We do not have houses like these in Mesa.

To assuage my fears, I appointed myself the role of National Geographic apprentice wantabe. At least I had an audience at home waiting to see my pictures: my friends and  family. My pictures will tell them the story of the last three weeks in a small New York town. You can see more here if you want. I am still editing photos, so check back later.