Painting with Light

Bellagio, March 2010

On Tuesday afternoon I couldn’t stop looking at the clock. I was worried about getting everything done before leaving at 4:45 in order to make it to a 4-hour photography workshop I had signed up for a month earlier. My roommate had found the deal on Groupon and forwarded it to me and I had forwarded it to my friend Leah. We signed up together and I was really excited because Leah was instrumental in helping me decide to buy a Digital SLR camera. I didn’t know exactly what to expect before stepping into the workshop – especially since it was discounted to $39 down from $400. We knew the workshop would be really full so we arrived early and sat on the front row. The owner of the studio introduced the two instructors: Russ and Adilfa, a husband and wife team of professional photographers who have been running Don Polo Photography for 16 years. They are both master photographers and travel the world teaching photography while maintaining their own studio in Utah.

Russ explained that his background was in information systems and he ran the technical side of the business while Adilfa was the artistic heart and soul of the business. He said they wanted to start the workshop by explaining how their company got its name. I kind of wondered why that was relevant but Adilfa stepped up and told her story of being raised by her grandparents in Venezuela. Her grandfather’s nickname was Polo and Don is a title of respect in Spanish. “Don Polo” was a huge influence in her life and as well as their surrounding community. He was known for keeping his word. Adilfa went on to explain that they run their business to the best of their ability and they don’t treat photographs as expendable images; instead, they are family heirlooms that will be shared with generations to come. She said that it was our duty as photographers to be prepared to capture images of those we love because we never know when our loved ones will pass on to the next life.

By this point all my doubts about the value of the workshop were evaporated and I was completely tuned in for the next 3.5 hours as Adilfa and Russ taught basics (the differences between point-and-shoot cameras and DSLR’s, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, raw vs. JPEG, etc.), techniques (lighting, posing, people skills) and the power of Photoshop. They shared best practices including being prepared for a shoot (“Bring two of everything!”), the best ways to store photographs (external hard drives are the best, DVD’s are the worst, CD’s are slightly better) and mentioned many local businesses that offer services I was never aware of (i.e., offsite photo file storage). At the end of the lecture I had a long shopping list (tripod, Canon flash, extra memory cards, external hard drive, Wacom tablet for Photoshop, fisheye lens, etc.) and wondered how on earth I had gotten myself into one of the most expensive hobbies on the planet. There is no potential end to the money you can spend on cameras, lenses and accessories!

The most illuminating part of the workshop was the travel photography slideshow they shared with us. As I watched pictures of exotic landscapes and magnificent architecture fly by I realized, “These are the pictures I take!” Obviously my pictures are not anywhere near professional standards but when I travel I am always taking pictures of buildings and other inanimate objects. When Jane and I were in D.C. and New York two weeks ago I was constantly pointing my camera off into space and she would ask me, “Do you want me to take a picture of you?” and I almost always said no. It is not uncommon for me to come home with 300+ pictures from a weeklong trip. Sometimes I regret not getting more pictures of people but for the most part I really love the ones I take. I was talking to my mom about photography last week and she said that even though people tend to photograph the same statues, monuments and buildings there is something special about knowing you stood right there with your own two feet and saw the place with your own eyes. It really is true. The travel photography slideshow confirmed that there are other people out there who get the same thrill I do when I see something (whether it is famous or ordinary, permanent or temporary) in a special way with my own eyes.

I can’t tell you how good it felt to walk out of the photography workshop having realized that photography doesn’t have to be a literal, static art form. You can create movement, direction, velocity, mood, drama and tone with settings, posing and edits. Russ and Adilfa repeated many times, “Photography is painting with light.” Adilfa had shown us dozens of pictures where she made slight changes to bring emphasis to the subject of her photo. She made Photoshop look so simple and emphasized the importance of using a Wacom tablet and pen for making photo edits because, “We don’t paint with potatoes.” (I hate my mouse anyway so I’m definitely looking at Costco’s offering of drawing tablets.) I also felt completely justified in buying an $800 camera. If anything I actually walked out wishing I had spent more on the initial investment. Russ and Adilfa pointed out that we use photography to capture images of the people, places and things we love the most. Why would we cheap out on something like that?

Even if I spent an arm and a leg on my camera I will feel the impact of this $39 workshop for years to come. I have been bitten by the “photography bug” and that combined with the “travel bug” have me itching to grab my passport and skip town. But, never fear, my full-time job is here to keep me in line.

Then again, it's never too early to start planning my next vacation, right?