I am so excited. My friend Monica and I have decided to start doing monthly photo projects to continue growing and furthering ourselves as photographers. This month we have decided to start with motion photography and panning. We are going to have a critique every month of our work, which is really exciting because she is such a well taught, talented photographer and I know I will learn a ton through these critiques and projects. I am really excited to get started so I’m going to be taking my camera with me any time I go into the city, rain or shine.
What will make this project even more interesting is that she lives in Colorado and I live in a suburb of Chicago. We have very different surroundings so it will be fun to see what the results will look like at the end of each project. We will be keeping a portfolio of our work. I am not sure yet where they will be posted once the project is completed, but we will find a place.
Monica has also recently introduced me to Lightroom, which I am now wondering why I never came across this program before. I am also getting a free upgrade to CS4 because I bought CS3 right before they came out with CS4. They should have included Lightroom with any package that includes Photoshop, but whatever. I am still going to buy it when my 30 day trial is up. I love the program already, even though I know so little about it. All I know is it makes my sorting go faster, my basic editing goes quicker, if I want to edit in photoshop it is only 2 clicks away and it saves it back in Lightroom so I can continue where I left off… It is so cool!
I also need to take the time to say how happy I am I chose this path. Although I like working for Aetna and Aetna has been very good to me, my brain works artistically and I feel I am in my element when I am behind a camera. I feel like the happiness I get from working on artistic projects is like a happiness I have had a void for for such a long time. My parents wanted me in business school. I got my A.A. in business but I wasn’t truly happy, especially trying to do math… Anyone that truly knows me, knows how awful I am at math and how much of a struggle math is for me. I definitely got my Dad’s genes because my mom is a math whiz. But I will continue working for Aetna because although I enjoy the job but don’t want to do it forever, I have so many benefits that outweigh the cons. I have it really good there and I forget how good I have it sometimes. But eventually, probably when I’ve graduated from Columbia, I am going to take my business and run even further with it because my true joy is being behind a camera and freezing time in a way that most people wouldn’t view that moment in time.
I recently listened to a Podcast that Monica sent me by Carlos Baez and I found many things to be so true and very interesting, but one thing he said that stood out was that you have people that he calls “Best Buy Photographers.” These are every day people who decide one day that they want to be a photographer. So instead of going to a real camera store, like Calumet, Ritz, or Wolf, they go to Best Buy, find whatever camera looks pretty, buy it and call themselves a professional photographer. I bet those photographers don’t even know how to adjust the aperture on there camera. Maybe they don’t even know what aperture is. Anyway, I recently went to a wedding and got to see the pictures and was not at all shocked to see that this particular photographer was a Best Buy photographer. The pictures looked like pictures anyone could have taken. They obviously didn’t know how to use a flash or pose the families or bride and groom. Even the bride and groom exclusive looked like something their mothers took on their Kodak Easy Shares. It makes me better appreciate the photographers who actually take the time to better themselves much more. I guess you could say you get what you pay for, but not in all cases. Some people are just starting out and don’t have a portfolio to show but could easily do a great wedding job, but because they don’t have a portfolio they can’t charge more (like me haha). So hire me to do your wedding!
Jen Shannon Photography, Florida Wedding Photographer
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