As was mentioned in an earlier post last week was focused on training. The original plan was to continue blogging normally even though training usually takes a lot out of me (externally focusing on every nuance of five people for eight hours a day really knocks me out) but the additional strain of getting ready to go to Florida immediately after the class to photograph my brother’s daughter’s wedding used up any time and energy that might have been applied to word wrangling.
The training class was great and the people were wonderfully focused and hardworking. It wasn’t them, it was me. I had once considered being a teacher but found even that draining. Training is even harder since you are responsible for producing resultsthat is what the client is paying you for. In teaching, you are expected to present a good class and the majority of the pressure is on the students. In training all the pressure is on the instructor. The client hires you for results so your objective is for everyone in the class to succeed, therefore you are constantly trying to find ways around any problems that crop up and that requires intensive focus on each student and their reactions to everything you are doing. Yes, you would also try to help struggling students in a regular classroom, but the demands are considerably less and the expectations different.
Couple that with the added demands of the wedding being also extremely high and you can see why the blogging was put on hold. Even though I used to do wedding photography for a living, including photographing my brother’s wedding, I had not photographed a wedding (as the official photographer) in over 15 years. Getting new equipment to be able to do the job (all digital) and learning enough of its idiosyncrasies to get decent results took a lot of energy. Some of my friends know my tendencies towards perfectionism, so wanting to do the best job possible was driving every decision. Fortunately, digital photography gives you instant feedback so you can see whether the result was adequate with each set of shots, allowing you to redo if necessary, which did help tremendously.
There are two main schools of photography. In one you do meticulous preparation for every shot and your energy is on making each effort almost perfect. In the other approach, you still do your preparation and know your material and craft but you depend on the percentages. You shoot at least two or three shots of every situation aiming for one of them being the one you want. To do that you need a very fast cycle flash unit because as the bridal party comes down the aisle, getting two or three shots of each one requires good equipment and a reservoir of nimbleness.
Over the course of two days, both at the preparations, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and everything surrounding the wedding itself, between my wife (who shot my backup camera as backup shots in a lot of situationsshe was very special) and I, we had over 1200 usable pictures. I know that sounds like a lot but when you browse through the four CD’s of pictures I gave to my brother, it doesn’t appear as many as it sounds. We now have to cut those down to 200 or so for a web site I will be constructing for my niece to let all of her and her husband’s friends experience the wedding with them.
So today is recovery day, along with an interview for work on a new contract. My friend Keith wants me to bust a few thousand words on Moses: Beginnings and I need to get the overdue Knowing God lesson done.
Your prayers are coveted today as I go to the interview and try to get back into my normal routine. But most all, may Gods grace and peace be with each you as you go about your day.
