A Photography Date

Yesterday was a great day with my husband. We had an all day photography date. We are soon to be empty nesters when our only child goes off to college later this year. Time to find out what we still have in common. Not really much of the same things as when we got married 23 years ago. We are different people now, but fortunately, still very much in love.

Mark is into biking, riding his motorcycle, and recently shooting guns. I no longer have a bicycle - rode it about about 10 miles total and quite frankly, I hated it. I won't get on the back of a motorcycle - many years of an anti-motorcycle mom in my head. The last time I shot a gun was as a teenager learning how to shoot with my brothers.

Most of my hobbies revolve around my dogs, but I honestly don't have much in the way of hobbies anymore. Mark loves my dogs, but has no interest in spending time at a dog training class.  I know that most people in my profession start out with a LOVE of carrying around a camera taking photos of everything, and have decided to make a go at turning it into a business.  I am working a little backwards...

Old Delmar Piano

Mark and I have two things in common though - our beautiful daughter and photography. Even our approach to these two subjects are different.  Mark was the original photographer here. He was the one with the LOVE of taking photos of everything, including people and nature. I was only supposed to do the business side of the business. Funny thing about turning your hobby into a job, many times it becomes less fun and more work. It takes dedication to not only performing the fun stuff, but excelling at customer service, marketing, paying bills, community work, and all the other things that make a business a business. Now Mark enjoys creating nature images that are just WOW, and gets a great feeling from that.

On the other hand, I happen love the people and business part of photography. Yes, I love learning about lighting. I love seeing how light is used to create drama, feeling, sweetness, softness, toughness, grittyness and more. I really love seeing all that on faces of people though. I want to hear the stories of the 97 year old grandfathers that come in with generations of loved ones. I want to cuddle those newborn babies and rock them to sleep before I create those sweet baby images. I especially love to hear a three year old little boy tell me all about his favorite cartoon, or what his uncle just told him. I don't mind sending out thank you cards and looking over P&L reports, or even paying sales taxes every month. That is all part of this wonderful business.

So, now I am going to try to take up, non people photography as a little hobby to do with my husband. It is not as easy as you might think. I know exactly the purpose of each portrait I take, I have a vision of how I want each newborn shot to look when I get finished with my day. I processed my images from our date yesterday, and am at a loss as to WHAT to do with them. Either way, it will probably get me some more dates with my husband, and if I will listen and learn from him, might even make me a decent photographer of non human subjects.