Anyone who’s been on my website or blog for more than a few minutes can guess where my passion lies…some form of lettering on some thing somewhere. That doesn’t mean I can’t do other things.
If you’re getting a degree in art, you’re going to take at least a couple of courses in subjects you aren’t going to specialize in. For me, that was photography. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I loved taking the class…twice, as it turned out. I took it a looooong time ago (when it was easier to find actual film for the camera) at UAH under Jack Dempsey whose idea of award winning photos…how should I put this?…was a unique vision. And when I went back to school to get my degree at Athens State, the photography class was again mandatory on the list.
That was okay with me. I loved working in the darkroom, developing film, manipulating images with chemicals, all that stuff that is now done in Photoshop in a smidgen of the time and a whole lot less stinky.
I like photography but I’ll share a little secret. I don’t get the mechanics. Two classes now (actually more than that, if you count workshops and such) and I still don’t get the numbers. The whole f-stop/shutter speed/exposure time equation does not work for me. I’ve read it a million times, I’ve taken written tests and somehow gave the right answer. But when it comes time to actually scientifically get the right combination at the right time, I’m just staring at the darn thing going “Wha…?”.
I think I have a mental block. I would probably love taking pictures more if I actually knew what I was doing while I was doing it. In the meantime, I just rely on my wonderful Nikon that has the (almost) idiot-proof settings on it. I still have issues now and then but I think my camera just needs a new battery. It may starting to lose a charge after 8 years.
Most of the time, I can manage to do what I need to do with my camera. This weekend was an example of that. My beautiful daughter needed a good picture for an upcoming pageant…as in needed it that day. So, I grabbed my camera and outside we went to see what we could do without having to resort to a school photo which just was not good enough for so many reasons which I was unaware of or else I would not have suggested it in the first place.
Luckily (thank you, Mother Nature!), there was a lovely tree outside for a backdrop and I was able to get about two dozen shots, of which Makala picked three that were acceptable. I enjoyed it and wanted to do more but we were under time constraints and had to get what we got while we could.
Makala is so photogenic and always has been. I’m almost inspired to maybe try once again to figure out that whole equation for taking photographs. It obviously comes in handy sometimes.
Here are the shots that Makala “okayed” for show:
