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glort
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Reading this really bought a tear to my eye.
I feel your pain and I agree with you 110%.
On the other sections I usually frequent, I am always banging away about how the clients can't tell the difference between one lens or camera from another but as shooters, we piss and moan and crap on about it so damn much instead of putting our energies into what really counts... what is going to make the client the most happy.
I have made the same point over and over, When I look at the pictures I have of my son I lost 20 Months ago, I don't analise the shadow detail or the fall off in edge sharpness or any of the other shit and carry on that is endless here. I look at my beautiful boy and that killer smile and wonder how the hell I could still be here and he's not. My heart pounds and my mouth goes dry thinking hes not here and my head still hasn't really come to terms with it but the last thing I'm thinking of is if the lighting could have been improved or if I had moved the framing of the shot 7mm to the left.
I look at the pictures and still have tears of disbelief most every day and it's not because I think I should have bought that other lens that has better sharpness and resolution than what I have if someone measured them on some scientific instrument.
I can look at these pictures of your Mum and see the kindness in her eyes and the warmth in her heart. No one is looking for anything technical, they are all thinking what a wonderful woman she must have been and how strong she was to go through what she did. You are grateful you had the presence of mind to shoot these pictures of her and so are all in your family whom knew and loved her.
Let me guess, not one single person has asked about the equipment you used or made one technical remark. What they have all said is how wonderful the pics are and thank you so much for giving them a copy. I know everyone sat at her service looking at the pics thinking about her and what wonderful pics you did that captured her spirit so well.
Not one single person thought about or gave a flying duck about the equipment you used.
I think your post should be required reading for all shooters to give them a reality check. I know I get too wound in things than I should here, but all this gear fixation crap drives me nuts and frankly, I think the people that are obsessed with it as so many seem to be, are nothing but ignorant pretenders.
They are looking at the technical aspects for their own satisfaction and ego massage, not the wants and needs of their clients. Client has a whole different and much more straightforward way of looking at things and it all is to do with the heart and nothing at all with technicalities.
Yes, there is a standard to be expected and delivered but that's way below what most shooters crap on about and exceeding it does not make you a better shooter, it just makes you ignorant or not serving your clients ( or likely your own) best interests.
I have endless pictures I took of people on my P&S camera's which I mainly take to family and social gatherings. Ironically Shooters will lament the idea of doing that because said images are not taken on $10K worth of gear but when it comes up, then try to convince me how wonderful the pics taken from their latest phone are. Really? Stack my high end P&S shots against your phone and lets put that to the test.
For a long time now I have felt a bitterness in what we do. Sure we make people happy and capture memories but I'm getting way too much experience of the other side.
I am absoloutley SO tired of my shots being used on the memorial cards given out at funeral services. So many, well all of them really, pictures have been taken at happy and memorable events and celebrations. The thought never crossed my mind they may be used to commemorate that persons passing. They do now and I take a shot, think that's a winner and have a hollow feeling where it may end up. I have learnt with the greatest kick to the guts a person could have, nothing is out of the question or even unlikely these days.
Every time a pic I took is used or I do a tribute slide show, people come up and thank me for a wonderful job and I hate being thanked for it.
I don't want to be thanked, it was the last thing I could do for that person so it's simply the decent thing to honor them one last time.
As far as the happy memory pics used for booklets and at the service, Yes, it's great to have those pictures but I have to say, it's wearing me down seeing them used to commemorate family and friends that have been lost.
Every time I take a pic of my Dad now I think ' Is this the one I'll use when I make his service cards like I did for my son?"
So many people I have lost and seeing these pics used for the saddest occasion of their life when they were taken to commemorate something nice has happened way too much. I never thought for a minute the pictures I did of my son at his sisters birthday party a few months before would be ones I used on his service card much less the one with his 19th birthday cake would be right on the front.
Hos friends have posted hundred of pics of him with them and at different things they did together. Most of them were on cell phones and a lot of them are complete crap technically. They never fail however to bring a smile, a laugh and a lot of tears.
Their technical inferiority in no way lessens any of the importance these pictures hold to anyone that knew him just as they would be no less important of anyone else or less loved by those that remain.
Seems every shooter wants to be the best that ever lived and think they need the best gear ( crutch) to achive that. The fact they don't even have a freaking clue what the ramifications and power are in what we do makes me laugh at their ignorance but feel more than a little sadness and anger as well.
We have immense power at our disposal but I think very few really appreciate or have a clue about it.
I wrote here some years back about a shoot I did for a woman that had cancer.
Friend of a friend who one day rang and said what are you doing, friends are coming over, can you be here to do some pictures? Yep.
Shot the woman with her 2 young sons and adoring husband.
Friend says make it quick, she doesn't have the energy to do this for long at all.
Rattle off some pics of the basic groups and her on her own in about 10 min flat. Nothing fancy, not great attention paid to lighting, posing or detail, Nice basic arrangement with the young boys who could not have been more co operative with the smiles and we are done.
Mate disappears into the office with his high end A3 inkjet printer, we pick out some pics, quick basic once over in PS and he brings out Half a dozen prints. Husband seems really happy but the woman is quiet and I don't think she likes them although she says how nice they are. Woman disappears for about half an hour into the bathroom. I get worried and ask husband if she is OK and did I over stress her? He says no, everything is fine, she just needs a moment to herself.
She comes out to me in the yard and thanks me for the pictures. I ask if she is ok and did she like the pics because if not and she is up to it, I can easy do them again. She Says I'm OK, I was just in there crying. I looked and she says that was the last thing on my list, to have nice photos for the boys to remember me when I'm gone and I didn't even imagine I would like them as much as I do. They are perfect and exactly what I wanted and more. I never thought it would happen but I am just so glad it did and can't thank you enough.
Next thing I had to go to the bathroom for several moments for myself.
We had some lunch and I left to go to something else. I had a hard time driving home through the tears. To see those beautiful little boys and knowing what they were going to have to go through having lost my own mother when I was only a little older than them really got to me bad.
Next day late my mate rings and tells me how happy she was with the pics and she and the husband wanted him to thank me again. After I left, she went down hill so husband took her back to the hospital on the way home.
She passed away in the early hours of the morning.
I know it was a good thing I did but I don't know I could ever do it again. That haunted me for months. Some of those pics were used on her service card and mate had a big portrait done which was displayed at the service.
When my friends wife told me later that the clothes the boys wore in the pics were the same ones she and the mother had picked out for them to wear to her Funeral which they did, I really lost it. How does a mother do that?
The only technicals I paid attention to in that shoot were reasonable lighting, in focus and a non distracting background. The value of those pics to that woman and the family was immeasurable and the last thing they are going to think about when they look at them now and in years to come was what damn camera or lens they were taken with or if there is a slight haloing of highlights in the corners or any other technical shooter concerned crap that is discussed endlessly.
I think a lot of us should wake up and realise that it's not important to have a technically perfect pic of someone dear, any old Rebel and kit lens will do all we need to make it the most precious or important picture anyone can have of a loved one living or passed.
No one is going to be worrying about anything technical in a pic of a Mother, son, father, brother, sister, friend or family member when they are no longer with us.
They are going to treasure any and all pictures for the memories they hold and the way they keep us linked to them wishing we could sit down just for another 2 minutes and tell them how much we love them and always will.
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| Feb 27, 2017 at 10:03 PM |
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