A Bumpy Beginning
A couple of months ago, I bought a camera. At the time, I had closed out my personal blog, and my wife was worried that I would need another hobby to dabble in. I'd recently written about my dreams to become a filmmaker when I was younger and she wanted to make sure I had an opportunity to make that dream come true, if I still desired to do so. Yea, I have a great wife.
So, I did some research, purchased a Sony ZV-E10, and then got to work on learning how to use the camera. I decided I would dabble a bit in photography as well as video, since there is a bit of crossover.
I made a huge mistake early on, reaching out to a photographer friend regarding his opinion and advice on some of my photography. He annihilated me. I mean, flat out destroyed me. He destroyed my confidence, and I made a serious error in judgement by asking for his help. There was no constructive criticism, it was just an attack and I'm not sure what that was all about. I would ask him, but his actions pretty much ruined a friendship of over twenty years.
It took me a while to practice some more with the camera, and through the grapevine a woman at my wife's exercise studio heard I had a nice camera and asked if I'd be willing to come in and help take some photos for their social media and marketing. They insisted on paying me, but I made sure they knew my inexperience and with at being said, I wouldn't accept any sort of payment. I needed the reps, and this would make for good practice.
Last night, the photo shoot was set up and around ten individuals were brought in to create a fake class environment. I showed up early to discuss with the owner some ideas and what she wanted, and was directed to her daughter, who is in the process of taking over the business and is their current social media person. It became clear early on that the owner wanted me to come in and take photos, and the daughter did not. She just wanted to use her camera to create Instagram Reels.
I was prepared to ask for a few things (big smiles, extra-long poses, and what not) but I was given no introduction nor was my opinion or needs sought out. Instead, it was a mad dash 30 minutes of class work where I was forced to learn on the fly, try to capture a few smiling faces, and try to keep the woman with an ancient cell phone out of my shot who was recording for Instagram. (My wife offered up her iPhone 13 Pro, but that was refused.)
It was a bit of a disaster. I made a few camera mistakes, and I'm so thankful I didn't accept any payment, but getting caught in between a business owner and her daughter, their differing views on marketing materials, and a photo setup that was not ideal at all was a bit uncomfortable.
I'm actually going to get a new computer to edit on today, and I'm sure I can salvage 25-50 photos, but wow... that was a wakeup call. I'm not sure how much more photography for other people is going to be in my future, cause quite frankly, I don't need that drama and that was not fun.