Jasmine is an incredible wedding photographer. Don't believe me? Check out her site. Beautiful work. She just spent five entire days telling the world how she does it all. And if you watched it live, you got to catch it all for FREE. I think it ended up being somewhere in the 30+ hours range of this whole experience. And it totally WAS an epic experience.
A big part of the way this works is that people get to participate via the chat room at Creative Live and through Twitter, using the hashtag #AskJasmine. Well, I have a pretty big mouth and take copious notes when I'm in ANY sort of class, teaching, or what have you. So when questions went up on Twitter that I had an answer for, I was happy to throw that out there. I was also a very happy re-tweeter when I won a ShootSac on Wednesday (prizes were chosen from retweets). I'm also full of questions myself or gladly retweeting questions that others asked for which I wanted to hear the answer.
Funny thing about all that tweeting is that I started getting TONS of emails with new Twitter followers. Oh my! I hadn't really anticipated that. Naturally, my take on this is that the peeps on Twitter in this class are like REAL photographers. I see myself as an amateur (apologies to David DuChemin, because he does not agree with that perspective. And he's a REAL photographer - ha! ha!). I'm trying to move my brain out of that amateur box, but it's not been an easy sell. Just the other day, I was out shooting raindrops dangling off of gates and fences and such, and I stopped to talk with my neighbor. She asked if I was a photographer and I just kind of shrugged and gave her a non-answer.
Nope, Jasmine, I am so not owning anything here.
I suspect that I know more about photography than I think I do. Which is probably why I kept tossing out so many tweets during this class. But now people are following me. Do they think I'm a photographer? Will they only read my tweets or will they drop by my blog? Either place will not convince them of such. Nor that I'm even trying to start a business in photography. Am I suddenly now a poser? Yikes! That certainly wasn't what I was going for.
You may be wondering why on earth I invested this much of my time in a class on wedding photography. Most of the time I shoot things; particularly flowers, plants, and leaves. I also love cool lines, angles, and patterns. I haven't shot people much at all. I talked about all this in an earlier post this week. You can check it here.
But even though I'm not a wedding photographer, I was certain there would be tips and insights and inspiration that I could glean from this class. Especially because it's free. So I signed up, marked my calendar, and then promptly received a request to shoot engagement and wedding photos for a friend's daughter and her fiance. Life has a funny way of throwing those curveballs at you. Now this class has become more applicable than I once thought.
I have learned SO much from this amazing class. I can't even begin to tell you how much incredible information and inspiration came out of these five days. To give you an idea, though, I'm at 33 pages (8x8") of notes . . . with a couple more hours to go this afternoon (final tally = 36 pages)! You thought I was kidding when I said I'm a copious note taker. I do plan to post more on this class soon. There was inspiration that could be applied to any areas of life, really. Jasmine is a very fun, inspiring, and focused woman. I need to process all of this and think about how I want to use the information and inspiration.
Oh, yeah, I sort of wandered away from the topic. Anyway, it sort of weirded me out to think that people might be thinking I'm some pro photographer and I'm totally serious about this business. I love photography. I would love to do more as a photographer. I plan to get outside my comfort zone and shoot in M most, if not all, the time. I plan to shoot more people. And whatever else I can find that is outside my comfort zone.
5 comments:
You are not a poser! and you are not an amateur!
OMG I said the same thing! I told myself that it's just a hobby & I'd NEVER be a wedding photography, why bother w/the class.
Curiosity got me & I tuned in during the end of the reception.
I learned stuff!
I was able to get through a few hours (schedule is tight). But realized that I definitely don't wanna go in "business" but I DO want to dig more into the photography.
It's my great (expensive) hobby.
Can you send me your notes once you've transcribed them? Please? Pretty please? I'd like to say I'm kidding, but I'm kind of not. Haha! Although after 33 pages of hard work, I understand if you don't want to. Haha!
Have fun w/photography. Like Nikowa said, there's nothing wrong w/it being a hobby! It's an awesome hobby to have. Maybe after you shoot your first wedding, you'll know where this is going. And you'll take the next step to making it a biz. That's kind of where I'm at. I shoot my first in December! G'luck to you!
I was once to that when you are paid for your work, you are considered a professional. I am paid for my work, but I still don't consider myself a pro because it just seems that there is still sooooo much to learn and so much more I want to learn.
Your work is beautiful!! You are not a poser.
Blessings!
Deborah
*told* :oS
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