Happy Anniversary!
This is my first post to my new studio blog!
This past Friday, June 5th was the 16th anniversary of my studio on Decatur. I was thinking back to that day in 1993 that I signed the papers and took the keys to my new place. It had been 10 years since I graduated with my degree in photography and came home to Las Vegas to work with my mom. I was finally getting the studio that I'd always dreamed of.
I guess it's natural that milestones like anniversaries make you take time to reflect . So many things were different in photography 16 years ago. I could never have imaged that I would be sitting here at a computer typing a blog that could instantly be read by people from all over the world. Things like cell phones, home computers, blogs and digital photography weren't even around yet. They would have been the the stuff of science fiction movies.
Photographers in 1993 were all shooting real film. I would never have believed that film would be basically extinct in the professional photography arena. Back then to do a black and white portrait of a client would be a very labor intensive process. We would do the photo session then hand process the film in our studio darkroom. That would mean mixing chemisty and then adjusting temperatures of the various beakers with ice or hot water until they were all to the recommended 68 degrees. Next we had to roll the film onto metal reels in pure darkness and place them into stainless steel tanks. Then we added the contents of each beaker of chemistry for the correct amount of time and did the recommended "agatation cylcle". Finally the film would go in a running water wash and be hung to dry. All that just to process the film and we hadn't even made a proof print yet!
Today I photograph the client by recording their images onto a memory card in my digital camera. Then walk that card to my computer and upload the images. In minutes I can project the images onto a large screen on the wall and have the client choose their favorites. In Photo Shop changing the image from color to black and white is basically a one-click process. Retouching blemishes, removing lines and wrinkles and even opening closed eyes in a portrait is easily accomplished. I can order their portraits by emailing the order to the lab in another state. It's truly amazing when you see how far technology has come in just those few short years!
Some things about portrait photography haven't changed at all. I'm still behind the camera working to make every client look their best. I am adjusting the posing to take off a few pounds here or there. I am adjusting the lighting to show off cheekbones or hide a double chin. I'm still talking to clients to get them to relax in front of the camera or being hit on the head by a rubber hammer to get a child to smile. The artistic side of photography hasn't changed. I still have to visualize the image and then try to create it with all the variables that working with living, breathing humans brings!
The one thing that hasn't changed over all these years is how much I love what I do. Since i was a little girl who used to help my mom in the darkroom in our home studio I always loved photography. I loved looking at the photos she took. I loved tagging along when she went on photo shoots. I loved talking to the people who came to our house to be photographed. I always knew that I wanted to be a photographer and I am so fortunate to be able to make a living doing what i truly love.
So here I am in 2009 adding another form of technology, "the blog" to my arsenal. I look forward to keeping you up to date on what's new at the studio, sharing my images with you from the studio and from my travels and keeping in touch with friends and clients across the globe.
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