Coffee with Some Edits Please

I LOVE taking photos!  I'm in the moment.  It's fast paced.  It's high energy.  It's raw.  All of my 8 cylinders are firing away!  Snap...Snap...Click...shish boom bang!


Then I'm done.


I go home.  Unload my gear.  Ahhhhhh...   Or maybe I drop my gear off and go meet up with my friends to unwind, eat, and review the day's events.


Huh? Wha...wait, hold your horses!  At this point, you're probably asking me "Wait, what about your pictures?  Aren't you going to look at what you got or didn't get?!!"  


Simply put...no.


I used to.  Don't get me wrong.  I would come home from a shoot, take out my cards, upload the images to my Mac, bite my nails as one by one they would come up, then start away on "editing".  Rifling through the images I thought were the best.  Setting them aside for later, future, editing and most likely pull up one that I wanted to work on right there and then.  And then maybe do another and so on.


It's taken me a couple of years to "allow" the procrastinator in me (yes I'm gonna admit it) to win.  I realized it after, every now and then, not getting the chance to run home and start working on what I had just shot.  When I finally had the chance to get to the files, sit down and look at them...I actually saw them with a fresh pair of eyes!  It gave me more...hindsight?  I wasn't just fresh off the shoot with that raw emotion I had while shooting.  I was more relaxed AND more focused.  I found that my end result looked and felt better because it was like looking at them again for the first time.


Sometimes, now, I kinda have to force myself to pull up my pics and sit down and start editing away.  But it helps when I'm relaxed and have my cup of coffee with me.  Happy Wednesday!  ;)

www.lafmilphotography.com
San Antonio photography

...And now for something completely different

My photography is embedded into my every action, everyday.  

I say that to say this:

  I was outside with my pup gang and I went to deposit organics into our compost tumbler.  As I approached I noticed a few honey bees buzzin' around.  Now, I don't normally shy away from Honey bees.  Why not?  Because they won't puncture you if you don't upset them.  Now, mess with their hive and you got another thing coming...thousands of things..with stingers, coming!  

That  being said, my confidence in not being harmed was in tact, and I proceeded to open the compost tumbler.   Unbenounced to me, there was an entire colony nestled inside!  Yes, that's right (as you shock and awe at my near death experience) I thrust open the compost hatch and...FWOOOOSH!  A wave of Honey bees nearly enveloped that which is my face!  As I mentioned before, if you do not fuss with them, they will, generally, not accost you and turn you into a human pincushion.  As such, I kept my cool and sloooowly moved back until I was out of harms way.

Then I breathed.

Upon taking inventory of my bodily well being, I began to asses the mass of bees that had engulfed my compost bin.  After standing there dumbstruck for about 5 minutes, I realized two things.  1) Crap!  I gotta get them out of my compost bin  and (here's where the photog in me came out) 2)  Woah!  This would make for some awesome pictures!  Now, in order to do one, I had to accomplish the other.  In other words, I could not get nearly close enough to snap some pics with the hatch open due to there being WAY too many bees in the general vicinity.  And, I wouldn't be able to get the shot I was looking at, or any shot for that matter, if I didn't clear out the bees and close the hatch.  So...

I grabbed the water hose and began my assault on the little stingers.  I was able to knock the honey comb off of the compost hatch and get enough of them out of the area to where I could get to the hatch, close it, AND unlock the latch to be able to rotate the tumbler and keep any more bees from crawling in.

Alright, so with that having been accomplished, I reached for my phone and snapped some pics.  Then I came to the realization that "Hello...I have a long distance zoom lens with a descent camera inside...duh" so I rushed in, set my camera up and was able to snatch a few of these mesmerizing shots.

Educationally, did you know that Honeybees are important pollinators of crops, fruit and wild flowers and are indispensable for a sustainable and profitable agriculture as well as for the maintenance of the non-agricultural ecosystem. And that there has been a steady decline in Honey bees due to a disease that is causing them to decline in population (called colony depopulation).  However, For the first time, scientists have isolated a parasite from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.  If we were to lose honey bees it could have an enormous horticultural and economic impact worldwide. 

Needless to say, I did not eradicate them from my compost.  No.  I doused them with much water to get them out of my area, then sprayed a diluted mixture of water and peppermint on and around my tumbler so as to deter them from building another hive.  I only do this because I gotta keep my pack safe.  Otherwise I would...I don't know.  They say when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.  So I guess I'd buy a bee keeper suit and make sweet, sweet honey!

http://www.lafmilphotography.com/
San Antonio Photography

Disconnection

We are always "plugged into" the Human Network that is our everyday lives.  Have you ever UNPLUGGED yourself?  Stepped out from the network.  Looked at life and others in "the network" around you?


I was at the airport yesterday and I did just that.  I saw business people, flight attendants, security, families etc.  Everybody just plugged into their own little world they call their lives.

With no clue as to anything or anyone else around.  Just zooming by, zooming in, zooming out of airports and people's way and lives.  Then, I had a realization.

The evening prior, I had the opportunity to visit with others in my profession.  I spoke with them.  I listened.  I became part of their world for the moment I was present with them.  I met people I had never, nor would have ever, met had I not made the trip out.  My world expanded.  New people in my field, in my life...in my Facebook group!  Everyone buzzing around with excitement and anticipation.  Enjoying the fun of the evening and the momentous occasion that we were all about to be a part of.

After the event we all left and went back to our own worlds.  Most of us with new aspirations, connections, relationships, and knowledge.  I flew back the next day to my world.


While in the air, right after take off, I could see the cars on the highway.  They looked like little toys from my view point.  But I knew there were lives down there.  Going to work, school, meetings, appointments, groceries.  All of them speeding along in their own world.

The point?


Have you ever had issues with your phone/laptop/desktop/other electronic device?  Did you reset/reboot/restart/unplug it and plug it back in?  And then did it start working ok again?


Every now and then...unplug yourself from your "network".  Take the time to look around.  Appreciate what you have.  Yearn for that which is lost/needed/wanted.  Search for clarity.  Realize what is around you.  Regain your center.  Reset yourself.  Then plug back in and (pun intended) start plugging away at your life again.


Everyone needs a quick reboot every now and then.


It will give you a new perspective and outlook to life.


www.lafmilphotography.com
San Antonio Photography

I Lost My Peanuts Cause I Consider Myself a True Photographer!!!

So...I'm en-flight from San Antone to Dallas to see Jasmine Star for The Fix!

As usual, the flight attendants are handing out peanuts...I say "yes please" but in my head I'm saying "just leave them all in my lap cause I'm starving!"  Any-whoosies (picked that one up from one of the photogs at the workshop!).  I get my pack-o-peanuts and (on my other lap is my camera) out of my window I see an amazing opportunity!  I swiftly snatch up my camera, lift it to my eye and SNAP!

 I get my picture...but in the process of doing so, my pack of peanuts slipped off my lap and into the eternal nothingness that is the crack of the seat between me and another passenger!  I looked down into the crack only to be glared at by the lady sitting next to me. "No ma'am.  I was not just looking at your buttocks."  I thought to myself.  But I shyly smiled as if to say "hello, i'm really shy and innocent...blink, blink, blink." DAMNIT!  I lost my peanuts!  AND I'M STILL STARVING!!!

All because I had/have to be the consummate photographer who ALWAYS has his camera on him...nice.

On the plus side!  I got to meet Jasmine Star and hear her divulge all of the secrets the universe has been holding back from us photogs who want to be a better business person...well...not that intense...but it was sure a heckofalotta fun!

Thanks again Jasmine for all of your insight and for caring enough about all of us "strugglers" to enlighten us and help us through the...dare I say it?  Tribulation  ;)

http://www.lafmilphotography.com/
San Antonio Photography