Hello. My name is Irene...

and I am a "photographer". A girl I work with HATES it when I use the air quotes. I really feels like she thinks someone could hand her a dSLR camera and she could take some pictures and charge them for it. I on the other hand am not so naive.  I think that is where is a lot of my fear comes from. I have all these wonderful images in my mind and I'm scared that I will never be able to get the camera to see what I see.

Right now I work for a chain photography studio. I won't say which one. That could be dangerous to my general well being. It's one of those Sears, Penney's, Picture People type places. So day after day I take thousands and thousands of pictures of babies, kids, families, seniors... you name it, we shoot it. I do this on preset cameras, with preset light settings. Exciting, huh? And for a long time, this was enough. I loved my job. I loved making memories for people. And I'm damn good at what I do. But I want more. I spend hours looking at portfolios from photographers and long to do things like they do. I keep trying to do things more artistic, whatever that means, and it does not sell.

"Why isn't she looking at the camera?"
"What do you mean her head will be cut off?"
"Can you center that?"

You get the idea. Not to mention that because of the limited camera settings and the EXTREMELY limited time available with each family getting to do anything creative is few and far between. I'm stuck in this tight little place between annoyed and bored. So I'm planning my escape. I'm currently waiting on my very first dSLR camera to come in the mail. A Nikon D90. Why the D90 you ask. Well I'm saving that for the next blog, it was really a big deal.

How exactly do you plan to escape Irene? Well first I plan on learning to use my shinny new D90. That should take like a week right? Then I'm going to master exposure and lighting, lets say another month on that. I already know how to pose and crop so I should be able to quit and start charging high end clients by, lets say, April. That's how it works, right?

I do have a plan. What I don't have is a time line to go along with that plan. In the long run I want to focus on families and babies. Maybe have a studio (a far dream I know). I would love to do weddings some day. Having the money for something like that, and getting the experience will be hard. I'm going to start like every other "photographer" does. By asking my friends and family if I can take pictures of them. Practice, practice, practice. Trial and error.  It won't happen overnight or even overyear. Hell, it might not ever happen at all. But I can't just sit back and do nothing. I don't want to look back in 20 years and wonder what if...