The right thing to do…or my two rules
I spent last week in Oregon at a funeral for a family member. This got me thinking about two things that I have alwys avoided as a photographer, though until now I had not really considered them as a personal rule. The first is pretty easy, I don’t take pictures of people when they are eating. While I understand why people do it, (and living in a tourist town I see it all the time) I have always been uncomfortable with people taking pictures while I am trying to eat my dinner. Now, let me be clear I’m not a partucularly messy eater, nor am I a clean freak by any means. Its just a pet peeve of mine about shooting pictures in a food setting. I suppose this aversion to shooting people while they are chowing down would make me a partucularly bad wedding photographer eh?
My other rule is not shooting people while they are grieving. There is a big school of thought that says the best pictures are the ones that convey a story and are full of emotion… Shooting people in that moment is just not my style. Now if they are happy or crying for extreme joy, thats another thing. I don’t take pictures of anyone in a situation that I would not want a shot of myself in. During the funeral last week there were people wanting me to shoot the deceased so they can remember them that way. I was just not comfortable doing that. Whats your opinion? leave me a comment I would love to hear from you on this.
Maybe today I can get my act together and do a walk/shoot. The rains coming in tomorrow and all the trees in the area are in bloom, which means all the rain and wind will knock the blooms off and there won’t be a lot fo fruit around.
Class started last week. The wife and I are taking a photo 2 class which focuses (heh) on photoshop for the photographer. In all my years of taking classes I have never missed the first week of class. We emaild the instructor four times while on the road but I have a feeling that come tuesday that we will find ourselves dropped form the class. We shall see I suppose.
