Freeze Frame

So here’s the Question of the Week:

What’s up with two requests in as many days for me to do portrait photography??? I mean it usually is the first question out of people’s mouths when they learn I’m a photographer, because I think most non-photog type people can’t really picture (ha) any other kind of photography. I mean, if you don’t take pictures of people, what else is there? (My first thought ~ "Ummm… like the whole Universe." Second thought ~ Ansel Adams response to those who said, "But there are no people in these pictures." He said, "O, but there are. The photographer and the viewer.) So they just naturally assume you shoot people. But what’s different about this is, these requests came after people viewed what seems to be developing into (ha! another photo pun) my very unintentional portfolio – otherwise known as my son and daughter-in-love’s wedding photos. Never in 500 years did I imagine anyone would look at those and think, “Wow. She could do our family portrait.” Never.

But that is exactly what has happened. I had lunch with a friend I see probably once a year and of course as we reviewed the happenings of the past year, I shared wedding photographs. She loved the style in which they were shot – candidly and trying my best to catch people being themselves. She asked me four times to do a casual, candid shoot with her family – she, her husband and two darling little boys. Last night (after the wedding photos made the rounds at a neighborhood party) a woman I know only slightly asked if I would take a portrait of her family – if she could ever get her four kids together at one time.

I’m stunned. Literally. Kind of frozen in place. And wondering if this is something I should say “Yes” to. You know the ol’ story about The Universe/God trying to get your attention? It starts with a whisper, then a tap on your shoulder, then a brick thrown at your head. The tap is getting stronger and a little more consistent and a little harder to ignore. Where it was easy for me to say a quick and unequivocal “No!” before, I hesitate now. These are people who have seen my work (which wasn’t work at all because I absolutely loved capturing the moments of that once-in-a-lifetime day…) and they think it’s good. Again, I’m stunned. Speechless. I’ve had nothing but positive feedback from the wedding photos. I’m certainly not saying I’ll become a wedding or portrait photog because I’m not trained in that and would never want the stress and I still consider myself a rank amateur in any genre of photography! But I find myself needing to respond to people who have seen - quite literally in black and white - what I have done. And I’m whispering to them in my head as they are talking with me, “Listen, folks, you really need to set your bar higher…”

But, the more positive feedback I get, the more I think back to that once-in-a-lifetime day and remember how much fun I had doing the candids (and if I listen to The Universe ~ what does THAT tell me??). The “formal” shots were a little stressful for me ~ for a number of reasons that really had nothing to do with photography; but the candids ~ catching people in the act of being themselves? I loved. Hanging on the outskirts observing, watching, quietly interacting? My God! That’s what I’ve been doing my whole life! It’s what I do best!!

So I’m remembering that feeling and wondering how I could incorporate that into family photographs and make some memories that people would reflect upon with a smile. I have found that, over the years, the photographs I have taken that wrap around my heart won’t win any prizes for photographic genius. But I remember the time of day, the way the sun hit the ocean, or the mountain or his face; the conversation, what I was wearing, the fragrance of lilacs or freshly baked bread or his cologne in the air… That’s the kind of “portrait” photographer I am. If people can “get” that and be happy with that; if they know up front what I do and why I do it and they like “my style”… well, yeah, maybe – just maybe – I could shoot people.

So my response to the two requests to do family portraits was a wishy-washy “Maybe; let’s talk....”

At least it’s not an unequivocal “No!” *wink*