I'm very happy today because it's the first time in five months that I can eat on both sides of my mouth. I got my permanent crown in after what seems like endless dentist visits and drilling, not to mention the beginning of this journey that started with soul-crushing pain. See that shadow on the far right tooth? That's not supposed to be there. But now, I can rest and eat easy and it's smooth sailing in toothland... until the next disaster.
But sitting in the dentist's office, I had a thought about trust. See the last time I was there, the dental assistant (there might be a more appropriate term for this person, I don't know so I'll just go with this) put in my temporary crown. The dentist left the room after all the drilling and things and she fitted the temporary crown, drilling it down in places, checking to make sure it was a good fit, and then finally gluing the thing in my mouth with adhesive. The last time I had this done (I really have terrible dental health - not for lack of brushing/flossing/hoping!), the dentist did all this work. So when the dental assistant was going through the process, I started getting nervous. What if she screws it up? She's not a full-fledged dentist - what if she doesn't catch something that the dentist would see? What if what if what if?
And then I calmed down considerably when I realized that I have complete trust in my dentist. There's absolutely no way he would let her do this alone unless he had seen her do it supervised and she had excelled. I have complete faith that my dentist would never, ever leave her to do something important unless he
trusted her, in the same way that I trust him (I have an excellent, wonderful dentist).
Naturally, I quickly related this to photography. A photographer's client must
trust them to get the shot or else the whole thing will be a disaster. If you hire someone to be your wedding photographer, you need to have total faith in them to do their thing while you
completely ignore the fact that photos are being taken. If a photographer and her client can have that kind of relationship, magical things can happen. There is nothing like having someone direct your photography to crush your creativity (far more often an issue with wedding
guests than with anyone in the bridal party). I don't really have anything deep to say about it, except to trust your photographer. If you hired him and you love his work and you all get along great, just take a deep breath, relax, and trust him to do his job.
For me, I'm not shooting a wedding today. Today, I'm going to eat on both sides of my mouth.
Look at these owls!! These are wrist straps. I usually wrap my camera strap around my wrist anyway so wanted to try out these little guys. I found there is too much strap between the wrist holder to make me feel really secure in holding the camera, but they might work great for you. Plus, they are endlessly adorable.
I told the lovely owner of the store that I would tell "everyone I know" about Lucky Straps and this is about the best I can do. What happened is this:
I received the pink strap up there as ordered. But a day later, a new package arrived with a similar strap in black. I wrote the shop owner asking what was up (after checking to make sure I wasn't charged for another strap!) - turns out she had accidentally shipped me someone else's custom order. I stuck it back in the mail, and she reimbursed me for shipping and sent me not one but two new straps (the blue ones here). During this short period of time, I ended up doing a couple "good will" things that might have been better for me not to do. For instance, I found someone's wallet recently and returned it. Lady ended up giving me some money and a really nice little card thanking me that "there are people in the world" like me. Definitely worth some rewards cards.
Anyway, I was completely thrilled with my experience with Lucky Straps and their products are adorable, well-constructed and generally make my photography experience much more stylish. I highly recommend!
It was serendipitous that my boss happened to have a spare 35mm lens lying around and liked me enough to pass it along. This lens, a little over a 50mm on my cropped sensor camera (don't worry if that doesn't make sense) quickly became my go-to lens. To this day, it is on my camera at least 75% of the time. I carry my camera with me everywhere I go, and this is almost always the lens on board. Weddings and portrait sessions require a different approach and therefore different lenses, but that's a whole 'nother (and more complex) story.
The remaining 47 or so are almost all taken with my 35mm:
For now, my advice to anyone getting into photography or looking to dramatically improve, is to put one fixed-length lens on your camera and keep it on. Go somewhere to shoot and don't bring any other lenses. Yes, you'll miss some stuff that you'd need to have a wide-angle for, and other stuff that's too far away to be captured well with a 50mm. Repeat this ad nauseum. When you know exactly what the frame is going to look like before you lift the camera to your face, you're on the right track. And if you don't have a fixed-length lens? Switch that sucker all the way to 18 and keep it there. Bam.