If I was given a nickel for every time I'm asked that question..well I'd probably never need to take my camera out of its bag! Now, for starters this question does not irritate me. As a matter of fact, this very question helped me discover what kind of photographer I am and where in photography my passion truly lies. When I first began this journey, I took pictures of everything in sight; flowers, trees, skies, buildings, food, dogs, cats, bugs, people, even the ground. Since my love for photography, you know having to be out in the elements and all, I'm on the way to recovery from a very serious bug phobia. I mean, I can't exactly run from every flying and crawling thing during a shoot or my clients will think I've completely lost it. Taking pictures of people is great, really. I get the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life and since I'm an on-location photographer, it's exciting meeting my clients at different venues and parks for their shoots.
On-location photographers are not confined to a studio. Oh no! We're too uninhibited for that! The great outdoors is our studio and it boasts endless opportunity for dynamic backgrounds. This is when I'm in my element. My element does however come with a price. You see, I had a choice to make: Learn and appreciate the great outdoors and suffer a few bug bites or let the burning desire to follow in my father’s footsteps as a successful photographer just die? The choice was easy. It was mid-morning on a Saturday in Forest Park where I took Tommy, a sixteen year old athlete’s photos. It seemed like the hottest day of the year so I knew bees and other bugs would be a huge problem. So, here I am trying to keep it all together instructing him on various pose compositions and bees are zooming past me and around me, little wings tickle my ears and fuzzy puffs flirt with my nose. I didn't know if I should swat or shoot! Oddly enough, I wasn’t as concerned with the bees and the bugs as I was focused on him. I normally choose park photos because the scenery is serene and it’s the one place where bugs aren’t my focus – the landscape is. Through people, I’ve discovered that my feet rustling through the grass, swatting clusters of tiny flying insects, seeing random people walking their dogs and park waters reflecting in the Sun is what makes dragging my camera bag, tripod, lenses and umbrellas, up hills, around corners, down streets and through bushes just to get that shot, worth it.
I learned through fear how to appreciate nature and all of her friends. So, when people ask me what kind of photographer are you? I answer honestly. I love taking pictures of people but landscape photography is my heart. The love for landscape helped me to overcome a fear I’ve had for a very long time. A fear that kept me confined to the house, a fear that made me watch from the screen door as my daughter play outside, a fear that would send me running like a thousand horses, a fear that found photography so that I could find me.
What Type of Photographer Are You? Find out here!
