Every week I look at way too many hundreds of images, being a combination of our work for clients, the work of other photographers I'm acquainted or friends with, and photos in publications or online. Like you perhaps, I also study some of my own professional images that I may be particularly proud of. But what about those photos we took just as documentation of our own lives?
In December, 2009, my son Dustin, who lives in Jacksonville, was married in the snow in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. Despite the treacherous roads and weather conditions, it was beautiful and a fun getaway before Christmas. The happy couple found the right wedding photographer team nearby so that Dad could enjoy the day. While that worked out fine, we also took our share of tourist pictures, landscape photos, and other shots on the way up to the resort area and during our stay.
Sadly, other than Dustin and Christina's professional wedding photos, we have never taken much time in five months to review the personal photos. Frankly, I'm having trouble remembering exactly what we shot and I really need to open that folder and take a look.
You see, after some time evolving our amateur love for photography, many of us get into the business of photography, and time for our personal photography seems to disappear. There's something wrong with this picture. In time, do we become only inspired by what we can do for paying clients? Do we enter professional print competitions only to win merits for our degrees, usually with clients' images?
One day, when your life in pro photography comes to a close, and you retire to relax or enjoy non-professional photography again, which body of work will you enjoy most? Your client's weddings or your personal events? While it's possible that over 90% of the images you take over your lifetime will be for clients, the ones you're most likely to enjoy are those of your life's good times, and other memories with family and friends. To you, client images will look dated. Personal photographs will look nostalgic.
Too often we leave home without a camera because no one is paying us to bring one. Too often the times of our lives are not recorded because photography is a business and not a pleasure. So, when your rocking chair years come, will you have photographs to keep you company and to revive the memories? I certainly hope so. But it's also a mistake to wait until retirement to enjoy the memories captured on film and sensor. Take time out every month to enjoy these images. Maybe print a few, and don't get bogged down in software enhancements. Put away the clients' folders once in a while.
Digital has changed our habits in both good and bad ways. When we had prints of everything, we could always find those personal memories in shoe and cigar boxes, and perhaps the best ones in family albums. Now everything is locked up in computer folders. Our family's faces are really nothing but zeroes and ones, occasionally recreated on a screen saver. We are makers of photographs. Let's get back to printing those memories. Record the times of your life and fill up those shoeboxes again.