Did I do enough?

       In just a few short hours, I send my oldest daughter off to BGSU. For the past few weeks my little family has been busy shopping, planning, and preparing for this day. I have been so focused on getting her off to collage that it didn't hit me until this last night. I wasn't prepared to be sad. In fact, I never took much time this summer to really think about.....Her leaving!

      I lay awake last night thinking......Did I do enough? NOPE! Did I prepare her for the journey ahead? NOT ENOUGH! Why was I such a hard ass to her? BECAUSE I AM A JERK! Does she know how proud I am of her? NO WAY SHE COULD! I beat myself up for a few hours before I remembered that was in the past and I couldn't change it now.

     When I really think about it.....She is just two hours away.....No big deal. We can talk, text,or facetime, anytime we want. We will communicate better now than if we were sitting in the same house. This summer she has become my buddy again. We have sat up late nights talking politics, business plans, careers, and sharing gossip about our family. I am sure the highlight of her summer was my 2 hours dissertation on how morally unfair our progressive tax system is....after I had enjoyed a couple of Newcastles. Pure genius on my part, I am sure!

    This weekend, I get to walk through my hallway without tripping over her dorm stuff, Annie Leibovitz, my pup, gets the couch back. Claire gets to step out of her big sister's shadow. And Lex.... well......Lex gets to do whatever she wants. Life will move forward. In just six years Claire will run off to College and I will get to reflect again. Did I do enough? NOPE! Did I prepare her for the journey ahead? MOST LIKELY NOT ENOUGH! Does she know how proud I am of her? SHE BETTER!

    I heard this said once....."never brag about your kids or your bird dog....." So I will not.....YET....but I can say.....Alexcea has, in spite of my less than stellar parenting.....turned out to be a very bright and intelligent young women. Her future looks bright!

    
    

A Girl, her pups, and a little regret.

This Morning I received a Message that one of my resent subjects has passed away from Cancer. Any time I hear of a client passing on, it makes me reflect for a bit. A few months ago I was asked to take a few "family pictures" for a girl and her Rhodesian Ridgebacks. My client had always wanted a few nice portraits of here and her pups.Her oldest pup Shahanna had just been diagnosed with cancer and she didn't have much time left. We made plans to meet the following Tuesday and shoot her family portraits. Now the extent of my canine photography has been some shots of my pup, Annie Leibovitz shot with the iPhone.

My tennis ball addicted American Water Spaniel

I woke up early, knowing how important this session was, packed the car with all my gear, and drove to the location we had planned to meet. I left the house with tons of confidence, with a goal of getting one or two images that would make my client pleased. After meeting with my client and the two pups, I really started to get nervous.... One pup full of energy and one starting to show the signs of illness. We shot 200 or so images......a few good, most not. I am please with a a dozen or so.

One of the things I enjoy about photography is that sometimes I get capture a moment that feels so genuine.... so real....

One of the other things that I love about photography, is the accidents that prove there must be a God.

Since this session, one of my good friends passed away, after being diagnosed with cancer.... I really wish I would have asked him to sit for a portrait. I have been kicking myself for weeks, digging through my hard drive to see if ever took his picture. I have not found one image. Why didn't I take the time to ask? Why was I afraid that he may say NO? How could a guy with a camera 24/7 not have taken a single photograph of one of the coolest dude he ever meet?

It has reminded me that I can not take one day for granted or one person, or one fantastic Dog for that matter. Life is full of opportunity's.... if we just take the time to slow down and see them.

Molly and the Bug

My first photographic muse Molly, had asked me to take her daughters 6 month old baby pictures. Now Molly has been a great sport, she had helped create some very interesting images over the past few years.

So I couldn't wait to shoot her little "bug" a second time.

It took a few weeks before we had the weather and our schedules coordinated long enough to snap a few images. We decided that last Sunday at 2 pm would be the only time that could work, and weather was 80degrees, bright overhead sun, not a cloud in the sky.....perfect for the a day at the beach. By now Molly knows I can't do just normal pictures, so I asked her if we could take her little "bug" down by the river and do something very different. Like I said she is a great sport, so we heading down to a "beach" along the Kokosing river and spend half a hour creating something different.

Annie Lennox inspired photo shoot

Annie Lennox inspired Photo shoot

The Back Story

Back in August of last year, on a very hot muggy evening, I was standing inside a small gallery off the square in downtown Mount Vernon. I was buzzed, due to cheap red wine and the fact that I had just won a small photography competition. Our small tight knit local Art League had just announced that the photo I entered, taken during one of the lowest point in my life, had just won Best of Show. As people came up to me and offered congratulations, to say I was uncomfortable would be a huge understatement. I was stunned, embarrassed and wanted to run away. After several minutes of hugs, pictures for the newspaper, and back slapping, I was ready to make my escape.

I found my friend Shane chatting with small group of people outside the gallery, while they were all having a smoke. I sat down on the bench, numb, half listening to the conversation. Words I heard were, Blah, blah, blah ... rolling your own cigs .... small talk about how many people came to gallery and more blah, blah, blah. Then finally they started talking about something interesting, art and music! Its at this point, I stood up and joined in the conversation. I introduced myself to group. We all talked about the photo show, artists we liked and music. Standing on the other side of this merry band of artists was a young woman named Mary. She had very short hair, sort of like a buzz cut and dyed red. Someone said she looked like Annie Lennox. We all started talking about the iconic photographs taken by Annie Lennox during the 80s and 90s. At this point, Mary stated that she would love to recreate the look and feel of one of those images. Shane chimed in with “well we need to find a good photographer.” Looking straight at me he added “Glenn, do you know where we could find a good photographer?” The group exploded in laughter as it was a well timed dig. But at that moment, I knew I had to take those images.

After that night, Mary and I became good friends. She helped Shane and I frame prints for his art show and my first photography show the following month. A few months ago, I told her I wanted to learn how to draw. A few days later, she knocked on my door with charcoal in hand and made me draw for hours. She is one of two people to really push me as a photographer and more importantly as an artist.

We talked about doing this Annie Lennox inspired shoot for six months. I knew she really wanted to get the look as close as possible to the inspiration images and that scared the crap out me. She sent me a few texts saying should she dye her hair orange yet, was I ready to do this shoot? I knew she had the look, wardrobe, and could do the makeup. But could I create the lighting and mood to pull this off? I was secretly glad she was a full time student and had a full time job. Between her work, school, and her boyfriend, her time this past fall was in short supply. I was glad because that gave me the time to think about how I was going to pull this off. I felt I was the weakest link in our project, but I never wanted to let her know that. I knew the lighting was fairly simple and I should be able to handle it.

I started to research several glamour style lighting techniques. The name Matthew Jordan Smith kept coming up in the blogs I was reading. Then Creative Live announced that Mr. Smith would be teaching a online workshop. That’s the best money I have ever spent on my photography. I learned so much about glamour and fashion photography, but more importantly how to look at light, and work with a team. I also learned that when creating an image, we are sharing the creation of a memory. I learned that sharing and doing what I love is far more important that the final image. I am now excited to share, to collaborate with other creatives and get off my ass and JUST DO IT!

If you made it this far in to this post, you get a gold star. You may want to know why I even shared this disjointed story. I share this story because every day we run in to people that can inspire us to chase our dreams. When normal everyday people, share there vision with me and want to create an image, I feel honored, challenged and passionate about helping them to create an image they can be proud of. I ask you, all four people that read this post, to follow your passion, to stand on a street and accept a challenge, and share the results. Don't sit around for six months worrying about results, take a chance. Put you phone, tablet, or laptop down, get off your ass, and follow your dream!