I hope everyone had a great Christmas!! We did, but ready for 2011!! Not that I wish time would pass any faster than it already does. =(
It has been a great, busy year! December hit me a little hard. I didn't expect to be as busy as I was and I'm not normally behind on anything, but December came fast. Working full time and doing pictures full time started to catch up with me at the worst time. I didn't have time set aside for shopping or Christmas decorating, so I did a lot of hustling and bustling in December =)...I'm all caught up now and ready for what the New Year has to bring.
I first want to thank all my customers for a great 2010!!!! Photography has never turned into a competitive hobby for me, even with the negative verbal competitiveness from a local photographer this past year. When you spend more time worrying about what other photographers are doing, how they are doing it, copying their art, spreading negativity about them and selling yourself to be something other than what you really are, you don't get to truly "Enjoy the moments" that go along with learning and growing with photography. With such an experience this year, It helped me to look back and truly appreciate all I have learned on my own with photography. My relationship grew with other local photographers and I was able to see clearly why it is that I do photography, it lets me be creative and have fun! Photographers come and go and everyday someone new is picking up a camera and wanting to learn, and that is what photography is all about.
This gentleman on a forum that I visit often says so much in his post below.... I have to copy & paste to share with everyone!!! LOVE IT!! Thanks Roman!!!
Somone who seemed to be frustrated about composition took my quote I used a certian way.....he thought it was eletiest. I was semi-inspired when I wrote my response, and after I was done, I thought I had summed up compostion quite well.
The quote in question is this one:
“Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk.”
~Edward Weston
My response was as follows:
Not everyone is cut out to be somthing...and if they are not talented in one area, they should seek what they were put on this earth to do.
Now...that dosnt mean DONT PICK UP A CAMERA......everyone should enjoy shooting, just like I would enjoy fly fishing (even if I sucked at it).
But the other side of the equation is...if you dont have the natural aptitude for somthing. Sure, learn as much as you can about it, enjoy it.....have fun with it. The second it becomes frustrating because your natural aptitude gets in the way and you want to make pictures....or weld...or build sky scrapers...(add your favorite things in here) as good as the masters or even the fairly gifted in those areas.....is the second to stop complaining.
It is interesting to watch people struggle against their own nature, wanting what they are incapable of to happen to them.
I love to sing in the shower. I wouldnt try out for American Idol....I know better. Doesnt stop me from singing in the shower.....or for appreciating music (I LOVE music)
And the number one thing that makes ANYONE good at anything is not knowing the structure of a thing (it can help to a certian point) but TRUE PASSION (appreciation).
Remember that word passion....passonate people dont get frustrated....they get in the groove and through appreciation and a desire to understand and love what they are doing they succede.
All Edward was truly saying is.....knowledge of a thing can take you only so far....there has to be a place where you need to hand that knowledge over to the heart...
I guarantee you no master of composition ever checkd off a list of rules....they just know.
Love....Thats the only true rule of composition.
