A year ago I had no idea the cost of a camera lens. My goodness. I mean, I knew that camera equipment was expensive, but I wasn't a cameraman. Nor was I a radio host. It was just another thing I took for granted I guess.
Most of the time we really don't think about just how difficult it is to do something new. Or something you've never done. Or yet, still, something you always wanted to do but just didn't know how to do. That's damn near the story of my life. Lots of things I always wanted to do (I pretty much always did, or tried) I figured you had to at least be familiar with the respected field/industry. That's certainly true of photography. Good heavens.
Last week the company I work for had several all hands on deck moments. One of them was to coordinate film & photography resources to produce content for an upcoming gala. No sweat right? I mean, I have 3 cameras; how hard could this be? But there's a big difference between having a camera and being a photographer. Now I wasn't to be doing the filming or the shooting, I was simply to coordinate resources. Bet.
I spent all day with two men who have filmed and produced content for the Kardashians, Mike Ditka (great stories by the way) and even Ronald Reagan. That's how long these guys have been in the game. After about 10 minutes with these guys I was doing shit I had NEVER known about, let alone actually done before. I learned what several pieces of equipment were, like the actual name. I understood and could now help augment lighting. I was carefully and precisely accounting for the skin color of the subject against the background. With the aid of several tools and methods I carefully took into account depth, presence and tone. And after all that, my job was to coordinate the teleprompter for the subject(s) to read from. I was in heaven.
Miscellaneous chatter during introductions brought up Good Morning Aurora, the 2nd largest city's 1st daily news podcast & what it's all about. I showed them the cameras I had, told them about the show, and pointed out the things that I wanted to make better. The lead producer said he ALWAYS has a need for an extra hand or an intern. He said if I was interested I could work with him and he'd teach me anything I wanted to know. That was good news. Now the shoot lasted from about 2 pm to 9 pm, a very long day. As we were wrapping up and asked to see some of my photography. Before showing him, I took great pain to let him know I'm just a novice really, haven't been doing it long, and just got a professional camera. Yadda yadda.
The stuff on the camera was aight. He showed what could be better, the angles, etc. He then asked "is that it?"
I said "well I have the last 3 pictures I shot BEFORE I got the camera, here on my iPhone." He peered at, then enlarged a random photo I took of the Paramount Theater while on the Downer street bridge. It was a nice morning shot that I took while on my way to the studio. He said "this one's really good". It was the only picture he said that about.
I had tried hard to capture flowers and people talking. I dropped to one knee for a smiling couple holding hands on a bench. All of that sucked.
He said that this bridge picture was an "excellent" picture and told me to keep it up. What he left me with was as uplifting as his liking of the picture. He told me I was "teachable, and that's important." He said plenty of people want to do things, but not everyone is teachable, and being teachable is important. It was 9 pm and I was starving, but I had experienced nothing but good news from the time I started until ending.
I came into the studio that Monday morning different. I felt re-energized. I didn't have to spend a million dollars on expensive equipment just to get the best photos. I just had to keep learning.
That was some really good news to receive.
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