Photography is one of the best self-confidence boosting tools around,
with the
exception of playing for one of the best college ultimate teams in the
country. Knowing your team is going to kick some ass most of the time
does in
fact give me a small EGO boost. Yes, there is a correlation between EGO
and
our team.
On to the main point of this. What better way to meet people then
having to
take a picture of them. Let’s say for a second that you don’t shoot any
sports. That means that you aren’t sitting on a sideline the entire
game,
only interacting with other photogs, which I love, even if it might
involve a
shouting match with local TV stations as to whose spot is whose. At
least no one was kicked out and the little guys stood up for
themselves.
That leaves a lot of news and other tidbits. This means you have to
talk to
people face-to-face to get a picture of them for a story. You then need
some
sort of idea how you are going to present them in the picture. Most of
the
time you can’t figure out how because you don’t know what their house
might
look like or sometimes have no clue as to what the story might be like.
Let’s
pretend you are traveling to someone’s house. The first problem is
light. If anyone asks you, especially my photography teacher, what the
most
important thing in photography is? Just tell them light. I keep trying
to
convince my teacher that it has to be at least having a camera with
you,
and no,
I have never forgotten the entire camera before.
You get to their house and realize you will need the flash — thank god
I
packed
it. Then you have to scope out a good spot for them to sit, stand or
lie and
if they should be smiling or looking at the camera. Don’t think that
they
won’t laugh or try to tell you that they look horrible in pictures.
Ninety
percent of
the population do not like their picture taken. You, as the
photographer,
need to be calm and talk to this person. You can’t be standing there in
dead
silence making the situation worse. This is where the self-confidence
eventually kicks in. You need to convince them that yes they look fine,
but
more often than not you need to be talking to them the whole time.
After
attempting this a couple of times you can get a good feel of what
relaxes
them. You then become less shy around people you don’t know and even a
tad
outgoing. I wasn’t the most outgoing guy, but now get me behind a
camera and
just watch out. Every thing and person in my path will get their
picture
taken, and they will love it.
There is a point where you can be too overbearing and cause people to
become
so introverted that they sit there in stunned silence. I think at this
point
you are probably just way too cocky and need to get a firm grip in
reality,
maybe a short slap in the face from a fellow photographer. And as much
fun as
slapping is, no one here at the Emerald has needed this treatment.
Of course after Oregon wins the national title for ultimate this year,
I can
only guess as to the level of my EGO then. Until next week.