Bloopers, Blunders, and other Random Rookie Mistakes

Making mistakes simply means you are learning faster.   

 ~Weston H. Ago 

I picked up my camera for the first time about a year ago this March. As I sit here and reflect about this past year I am reminded of so many moments of awkwardness and quite a few mistakes along the way. The thought of it all puts such a smile upon my face as I see how far I've come in such a short amount of time. 

I am what you call a wall-bud. Now for those of you who need a definition...

Wall-bud: A more timid and distressed version of it's sister the wall-flower. 

A wall-flower is a shy person who has started the blossoming process to near completion. A wall-bud is still nervously waiting to spread it's petals, fearful that it's beauty will be squashed at the first stroke of light.  

So imagine the hilarity of a wall-bud becoming a photographer! In theory it seems as though photography would be a perfect match for the quiet, inquisitive, and artful wall-bud....but in order to photograph people I must converse with them. This is quite intimidating for someone like me. I am constantly stumbling over my words and descriptions of what I'm trying to achieve in the shot and then I fear I'm sounding quite unprofessional and unqualified. I'm sure it's probably quite commical if one were to watch from the sidelines.

With this in mind, you can only imaging how my first photo shoots went down. I would converse as little as possible leaving my clients to feel quite confused and probably alone in front of my camera. I feel almost mortified as I think back on those moments. However, I'm grateful for the learning curve it has provided for me and my future clients. I'm not saying I'm a full blown "flower" yet, but I think I'm starting to show a few more petals.

As a new photographer you can imagine my sheer thrill of the opportunity to photograph the "Pictures with Santa" this past December at Light The Night in Eastvale. It was such a fun experience and also another learning curve. I sat down the other day to look back on the event in order to brainstorm ways I can make the next event in April even better and more efficient. However, as I was taking this step back I went through the photos taken and realized that Lightroom had failed to upload all of the photos from that night. I then checked my online gallery and saw that sure enough I was missing a whopping 130 photos! During the holidays I had several people ask for more photos and I checked and rechecked and never saw that I was missing those photos. So needless to say, I feel completely awful and quite foolish at the moment. At least I know I will never make that mistake again.

I am a natural light photographer that is still learning about reflectors and manipulating the sunlight. I had one family shoot this year outside at a local park. I wanted to capture the glow of sunset in the sky so I decided to set the time close to sunset (obviously). Bad idea! Much to this sprouting photographer's surprise....once the sun starts to set, it goes down...fast. I was desperate to catch as much as I could in that short amount of time. I was starting to have a near panic attack as I was in a race with the sun and he wasn't taking any prisoners. In the end I had quite a few grainy shots that just didn't show the type of work I want to be known for. I have learned that I want to continue to push myself to become a better photographer, but I need to know my camera and my abilities and make sure I don't push too far.

Overall, this year has been a wonderful learning experience as I continue to move along this journey of photography. I can't wait to see what mistakes I make this year!

They say the Elephant never forgets, so I'm going to channel my inner-elephant and strive to make these mistakes count.

Now on a more serious note...

I would like to publicly apologize to the people who couldn't find their photos this Christmas. It was completely my error and I thank you for being so gracious about my blunder. I have now posted the rest of the images and you are all more than welcome to check them out if you're still interested.