“A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it." – Edward Steichen Over the holidays, I decided to create a space on the web devoted to this fairly new venture of mine..... DTRphotography. It just felt like the appropriate next step for me. Now, I'm not ashamed to tell you that I am VERY proud of my work....not because I think it's the best photography out there. Hardly! I'm on a journey and hope to always find ways to improve. No, it's more about the effort I put in...not just for the hour or two that I'm with my clients but also the hours of post-session work I do to put my own signature on the product. I LOVE the work, and I am grateful to the people that put their trust in my skills (however limited those skills may be). Having said this, I gotta' come clean and admit that I've always felt that I put a LOT more into a photo shoot than my clients. I mean, after all, the only thing they have to do is just "be pretty", right? Well, due to my recent experience on the OTHER side of the lens, I feel I owe those awesome clients of mine a big ol' apology. Confused? Let me explain..... Remember that new website I was telling you about? Well, I wanted to create a page within the site to help prospective clients know who they'd be dealing with.... Sort of a "who IS this "DTR" person, anyway??" kind of thing. I figured I better add a picture of myself as well. Trouble is ..... I don't have many pictures of myself. In fact, other than school pictures and those dreaded Olan Mills shots back in the day, I can count on one hand how many times I have been on the receiving end of a camera's lens. About 6 months ago, we did a family shoot with a local photographer (Holla, Dee!), but that was all four of us together or combinations of us. None were of "just me" (which suited me just fine!) So....I asked my sweet husband if he'd be willing to get behind my camera and snap some shots of me. Here comes that apology, y'all..... I am SO sorry I didn't realize how challenging it is to be in FRONT of the lens!! Posing and trying to be halfway "natural" at the same time is HARD!!! My super-patient man took a total of 81 pictures of me as I was trying my best to do what I ask my clients to do. Every few shots, he'd give me the camera and say "Okay, take a look and see if this is what you're wanting." I'd look, and then I'd be SO bummed! Sure, a few were just plain and simply out of focus (hey, bifocals are no joke, right, Honey?), but the vast majority were fine composition-wise. I just wasn't loving looking at myself! See, I'd had big assumptions that it would be easy to just "be" while Rut followed me around snapping away, but it was MUCH harder than I thought. I felt totally on display.....awkward....a 2015 version of Olan Mills flashback! I mean.....do I tilt the head ever so slightly or not? Do I sit?.....or do I stand? (More importantly, which will make me look thinner?!) :) Also, do I look away, "pondering life"....or.... ......do I look straight into the camera's soul? ...and what about the smile? Closed mouth? ....or... ....do I show some teeth? Ugh!! SO many things to think about....all the while trying to look "natural". Posing is hard....period, and I have totally left THAT out of the whole photo shoot equation.....until now! I think this may be why I lean so heavily toward "lifestyle" photography as a preference because it's just capturing someone living their life....doing their thing....naturally. THOSE are the shots I am obsessed with capturing these days. So, all you DTRphotography clients out there, please know that I no longer think you had the easy part of the shoot. I am going on record as saying that being in FRONT of the camera is no walk in the park (well...actually sometimes it IS exactly that now that I think of it.... but you know what I mean). :) As the quote at the top of this post reminds us....it takes effort on BOTH sides of the camera to make a pleasing image. ....and sometimes, when a wireless remote and a tripod are involved, both sides can freeze a moment in time together! Thanks for your patience...and super-rad photo skills, my Love! I really enjoyed our afternoon together, and I'm already trying to figure out what our next "Roomy Nest" outing can be! Oh, by the way, I DID finally decide on one for the actual webpage. It's none of the ones I posted here, though. Here's the link if you're curious.... "About DTR".
Thanks for reading! Until next time, ~D
1 Comment
Joanne Brown
1/26/2015 07:46:45 pm
Great pictures they are so pretty not to mention the subject. You will do great in this line. Good Luck
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AuthorHi! I'm Dot. I refuse to succumb to the "empty nest syndrome"! So, this is my journal.....my photo album.....my attempt to enjoy the next chapter of my life as it unfolds. Welcome to The Roomy Nest! Archives
January 2020
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