I started my career in photography as a commercial photographer. I photographed everything from Animals to Zippers. All sorts of things that where emotionless and pretty uncaring. I didn’t have to worry about my subject or their feelings. If the photo didn’t turn out it was no big deal. The chair wasn’t going to feel hurt when the spread didn’t make it in the latest flyer. Eventually I felt my skill set had improved and moved on from this work into things that interested me more, people. Obviously the job became a whole lot harder at this point as a whole new variety of variables came into the picture – emotions, the subject or model’s skill sets, thoughts, ideas. All sorts of things came into the picture that I had little to no control over.

I began to shoot weddings, portraits, grad photos, all sorts of fun things. Some very successful, others not so successful. It’s never easy on you when you take a bad photo. Someone once said to me you are only as good as the last photo you show. So, when a photo shoot goes bad for whatever reason you can easily get pretty down on yourself. Any photo you take is a collaborative effort between photographer; the photographic team and subject. Sometimes a project is more of an effort on the photographer’s part, other times it’s more of an effort on the subject’s part but in the end everyone just wants to take fantastic photos that will leave a lasting memory.

A year or so ago I attempted a marketing campaign targeting schools to photograph graduates. It was a fad at the time and was big in the photo business community. The idea was to photograph high school students, use their photos for marketing purposes and spread the word through recommendations and referrals through the students. After attempting to set up roughly 5 photo shoots with local students I had one volunteer show up for photos.

She had brought along two friends which was fantastic. This was a volunteer situation and they knew there was no payment involved. In exchange for their time I offered to do prom photos as well as discount any print orders.

It’s always hard when you are looking to photograph commercial grade product with less experienced models. It’s never easy for anyone. The model isn’t 100% sure what to do, the photographer has an idea in their head and tries his or her best to articulate it. And at the end of the day sometimes it just doesn’t work as planned. Sometimes the photos just don’t turn out. The light is wrong, the subject is blinking, the equipment fails and so on. There are so many factors that it’s just impossible to list them all off. In this particular case after the previous frustrations with the entire project I just wasn’t feeling it any more. This wasn’t a job where I was being paid by a client, I didn’t need to make anyone else happy… The chair didn’t care if they were in the flyer or not…..oh wait, they did this time. This would be one of those times I made a mistake. I didn’t think about the subject matter. The girls who came into town to volunteer their time so that hopefully they would get nice photos and I could use them for marketing.

I got home, unloaded the photos and treated the project like any other commercial job. I selected the photos I felt work and discarded the ones that didn’t. I didn’t take into consideration who was the subject in the photos, I didn’t take into consideration on how they would feel. I never had to up to this point. There is no particular reason the photos didn’t turn out. They just didn’t look great. They didn’t represent me and my best work and they didn’t represent the subject involved very well. Why spread these not so great photos around? I ended up just letting it be.

The project failed and I moved onto other projects from that point. Shot some weddings, edited some albums, just moved on. And that’s what happens in the world of photography. Commercial photography, to be more specific. You move from project to project and don’t get tied up in project that’s just don’t work. Except in this case there was one variable I had forgotten, the subject’s feelings. They were upset that they never received photos and it went un-discussed for more than a year, the project had ended. But there were no photos to give. In hindsight, I should have just given her some photos, but I didn’t. It had nothing to do with the subjects size, smile or demographic. It had nothing to do with the lights or the camera or even how we interacted that day. They just didn’t live up to the standard I was trying to set for myself. You only ever want to show your best work, and I assume the same goes for the subjects. You just want to see great photos of yourself. Not the mediocre ones in between.

It’s never easy for a photographer to write about their own personal failures. I am certain we all have a story like this. Unhappy clients, missed deadlines, files gone missing. In the end though everyone is just human and makes mistakes. Photographers are not people with special powers. We can create wonderful fantastic things, we can create things that make people happy, we can create things that make people cry, we can even make things that make people angry… But sometimes it’s the act of not creating that can evoke the worst emotions.

It’s funny how photography can work. Your hired as a professional photographer for your expertise, skill, equipment and a variety of other things. Some time you utilize all of those and other times you do not, it all depends on the shoot really.

We were hired a while back to do a CD for a local musician and the above photo is what I had in my head after we sat down and discussed the details. The shoot went amazing and everyone was happy.

A few days later we got together to go over the photos and in the end the client choose a photo none of us expected. Normally we take the outtakes out and just show processed final images for selection. We had accidentally left one photo of a photographer taking a photo of the client during the shoot in the pile. this of course is the one she choose.

It’s funny how photography works some times.

When I first started working with Brian I noticed the OBSCENE amount of coffee he drank, specifically Mochachinos (espresso and chocolate goodness). We made a lot of stops at coffee shops and I was not really into coffee drinks or donuts so I started to search the menu for a nice drink that I could share with Brian while he was enjoying his Mochas. His favorite place to get his drinks is Just Us Café, its fair trade and organic so it’s a great place to grab a cuppa joe. Brian suggested that as I liked tea I try some of the teas there. In no time at all I was addicted to their loose leaf green tea.

I started to hunt around and try the different teas around town and started to discover that like most things in the world every one I tried had different things about it I liked. It wasn’t long before I started to pick up on all the tea lore, steeping times, boiling temperatures and even serving sizes and traditions. I started becoming a bit of what we like to call a “tea snob” and really developing my pallet for different teas.

In November I aged another year…backwards naturally… and as a gift Brian bought me the Breville Variable Temperature Kettle! It has different settings for all the different teas. It was my first step in my now sick collection of tea paraphernalia consisting of way too many tea pots, a cupboard full of different teas and more strainers and tea balls than you could shake a stick at.

My newest and coolest piece of tea paraphernalia was a gift I got for x-mas from a dear friend. She knew how seriously I took my teas and decided she would get me a Bodum storage cup…this travel mug is nothing short of miraculous! It not only has a nice handle for ease of use but it also has its own French press so you can brew loose leaf teas in it and a mini storage compartment for hiding extra tea for later!!

I suppose by now for those of you who have not met me you have figured out I am a nut job… but at least I’m a nut job with a hobby.