Terry G Alexander
Everybody Stand Up
My daughter had her first official public function as cheerleader for her school last night. She did so well.
Funny thing about carrying a DSLR out into public. People will always assume two things right off the bat.
1. You are a Professional because "you have such a big camera".
I don't really mind the attention that my camera brings. I enjoy what I do with it and naturally, to use it to it's fullest, it requires me to do it in public a lot. It is a good conversation starter. I am most always the guy who gets asked at public locations by strangers to take the family photo in front of the local tourist icon. David Letterman and Jeff Altman told a funny story once about this situation. They were attending an Indy race together and a man, not knowing who they were, came up to Dave and asked him if he would take a photo of him and his family in front of Winners Circle. Dave said sure and the man handed him a very expensive DSLR. Jeff took the story over from here and said that Dave looked at the camera. Looked at the man and then ran away with the camera into the crowd. Jeff just looked at the man and shrugged and said he didn't really know who that guy was and walked off also leaving the tourist dumbfounded. A few minutes later Dave brought the camera back. I haven't tried this yet, but one of these days I am so going to do it. Which brings us to number...
2. Your big camera will take much better photos than my point and shoot.
The negative aspect of a large camera that I don't like is the assumption that it is the camera that takes the photos and the size of the camera is relative to the quality of the photo. If I take a good photo it is because I have spent years of practice trying to get better. So many times I tell people that their 250 dollar point and shoot is just as viable a tool as my 1000 dollar DSLR - as long as you learn to use it. It's not the equipment. It's the operator. See cartoon below in comments for an explanation.
I want to strongly say that the above comments are not a rant. They are simply an observation with some comic relief thrown in to hopefully convey that I am not ranting.
So where is all this leading? Nowhere other than I am now the official Cheer Dad Photographer for the Hildebrandt Mustang Cheerleaders. A job I actually look forward to. But one that was actually approached by the process above.
Everybody Stand Up
My daughter had her first official public function as cheerleader for her school last night. She did so well.
Funny thing about carrying a DSLR out into public. People will always assume two things right off the bat.
1. You are a Professional because "you have such a big camera".
I don't really mind the attention that my camera brings. I enjoy what I do with it and naturally, to use it to it's fullest, it requires me to do it in public a lot. It is a good conversation starter. I am most always the guy who gets asked at public locations by strangers to take the family photo in front of the local tourist icon. David Letterman and Jeff Altman told a funny story once about this situation. They were attending an Indy race together and a man, not knowing who they were, came up to Dave and asked him if he would take a photo of him and his family in front of Winners Circle. Dave said sure and the man handed him a very expensive DSLR. Jeff took the story over from here and said that Dave looked at the camera. Looked at the man and then ran away with the camera into the crowd. Jeff just looked at the man and shrugged and said he didn't really know who that guy was and walked off also leaving the tourist dumbfounded. A few minutes later Dave brought the camera back. I haven't tried this yet, but one of these days I am so going to do it. Which brings us to number...
2. Your big camera will take much better photos than my point and shoot.
The negative aspect of a large camera that I don't like is the assumption that it is the camera that takes the photos and the size of the camera is relative to the quality of the photo. If I take a good photo it is because I have spent years of practice trying to get better. So many times I tell people that their 250 dollar point and shoot is just as viable a tool as my 1000 dollar DSLR - as long as you learn to use it. It's not the equipment. It's the operator. See cartoon below in comments for an explanation.
I want to strongly say that the above comments are not a rant. They are simply an observation with some comic relief thrown in to hopefully convey that I am not ranting.
So where is all this leading? Nowhere other than I am now the official Cheer Dad Photographer for the Hildebrandt Mustang Cheerleaders. A job I actually look forward to. But one that was actually approached by the process above.