March 31, 2015

Awkward Confessions and More Randomness | Thoughts on Photography and Life

Saratoga Photographer Susan Blackburn
The smell is addictive.

I have an Awkward Confession:  I miss shooting film–even the way film smells.  I keep a cannister of Kodak Portra 400 Black and White 35mm  in my bedroom closet.  When I really miss shooting film, I open the canister of film and sniff it.  Then I put the lid back on and continue to shoot digitally.  Weird, I know.

My kids keep telling me that I need to get an Instagram account.  I feel like I need to have yet ANOTHER Social Media platform like I NEED a fungal infection.  But stranger things have happened.  Perhaps next week.  My kids are sometimes right about things.

Not every picture you make is a Masterpiece–and that is totally OK.  Just don’t act as if everything you do is priceless.  It is more about learning something in the process.

You can make a great image with an iPhone (or some other piece of crap camera) and a horrible image with a Canon Mark iii.  At the end of the day, how did it make the viewer feel?  If they felt nothing, it is crap– Move On.  It is not  how many megapixels your camera has, it is about your soul.

Some days I am an Artist.  Some days I am a Business Woman.  Mostly this makes me feel like I suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder.  In a good way.

Pick your battles.  Live to fight another day.  Having kids is teaching me this.  It is a slow process.

Brussels Sprouts=Food of the Gods.  At least this month for me personally.  With Pancetta and lots of pepper.

The client may not always be right, but the client needs to think they are always right.

What is it with all the cheesy Photoshop filters and effects?  If an image is beautiful and created with thought, you should not need all that stupid junk.  It should just stand on it’s own.

The integrity of the final print is what it is all about.  A photograph printed beautifully on archival paper and matted and framed properly should make your heart sing.

For those of you who laughed–I still like going to yoga.  I freaking LOVE yoga.  And handstands still terrify me.  But one day, it is going to be like ripping off a Band-Aid, and I will just DO IT.  Like everything else in my life that scares me. And I freely admit that I have not quite mastered the whole “Relax” concept.  BUT–I am getting better at it.   So “Namaste” to you.