Last month I traveled East to a place called Bolivia, NC. For those of you who haven't heard of Bolivia, NC (I hadn't before I met my husband). It is a small, country, farm like town right on the outskirts of Wilmington, NC. A four hour drive from Charlotte and is the home of Time 2 Remember Photography. Or in other words home of Stace Walter, photography extraordinaire who also happens to be my Photography Mentor, friend and as luck would have it - Family.
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| Stacie doing her thing in her outdoor studio. |
You see, I got lucky. Stacie is my husband's, Chris, cousin. And while I have always known that he had a cousin named Stacie and over the years we had exchanged Christmas cards etc, I had never met her before this summer. I didn't realize what a wad of information and talent she would be until I picked up my first DSLR. I think she could smell my hunger for this trade long before I could. But being a photographer herself she had me figured out pretty quickly. She would e-mail me tips, websites, tricks you can play on your husband in order to make him think buying a new DSLR lens is really "His" idea etc...
Over the months she has passed on many of her marketing tips, ways to promote yourself, stay confident and always throwing in a piece of advice or two in this business. She comes from the days of film and therefore knows a heck of a lot about this trade. In a nutshell the woman is freaking amazing and once again how lucky I feel that somehow she ended up in my life.
With all of that being said it was time for me to see Stacie in action. After launching Mary L. Photography in August I quickly learned all of the things you don't think about when you start your own business, especially a business as competitive as this. I can probably count on both hands how many Stay at Home Mom's I know who are also photographers. They are my crew my "people" if you will and I love them dearly but in this business, you need to be branded, you need to stand out and make your photography voice known and heard. Part of this process for me is to watch, learn, and ask questions... Lot's of questions. Stacie is used to this from me... Almost weekly I am texting her with stuff.... "What should my resolution be for a canvas size print...." Outdoor sunlight no shade, what is my best shutter speed?" Crazy little nit picky questions ,that you can only bug family with, and get away with it.
So she and I picked a time frame and off to Bolivia I went for a one nighter with her and her partner Frank who also happens to be her husband and the other half of Time 2 Remember. I was so very anxious for this trip on many levels, One I was scoring an old Flash that she was no longer using and would be great for a beginner like me to start learning on without having to spend extra $$. Second, I was going to be able to shoot with her and also watch her shoot as she had a high school senior lined up for the day I was there.
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| Half way through the shoot, getting set up for lighting test. |
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| Showing the client some of the shots she had gotten already. |
It is funny the expectations you have sometimes. I was convinced that I after my time with her I would be just like her. I would know everything and just be natural at this whole picture taking thing like she has turned out to be. I realize now my expectations were out of this world crazy. I also realized while I was there, I was way in over my head. Yet I mean this in a good way. I am a firm believer that if you are put of your comfort zone, if you are feeling challenged and maybe a tiny bit overwhelmed, somewhere, deep down you are growing. You are learning and you are putting yourself in a position to be vulnerable. I didn't realize how important this can be... I also didn't realize how much I needed to feel vulnerable in order to realize that photography, is without a doubt the thing, for me.
So, what I learned while I was there.... First, certain parts of photography does comes naturally to me. I see the shot I take it. I have an artistic "eye" if you will and I love capturing those special spontaneous moments. I will angle my camera and most likely clip a person' head if I have to, to document whatever it is happening in that moment. , I love eyes, and babies feet. I love Black and Whites and for some reason I favor the backside of people sometimes over the front side. Give me a couple holding hands, walking away from me, heads ducked in unison yet so much love shown between them. Give me that shot and I am on top of the world. I can't really explain it any better than this but you fellow photographers probably know what I am talking about. The unique, the unseen, the special glances, the shiny eye squints, crows feet, true laughter showing heart and humanness. Pure, honest, real humans simply being- human!
Second, Stacie showed me the pure bliss of capturing an image in silence. No thinking, no paying attention to how it will turn out. See the moment - Get it! We spent some time in her backyard studio just shooting images of her Dad's old car, an old boat. For a budding armature like myself everything about her set up, is for lack of better words, - KICK ASS. Not just outside but also inside. I wish I had gotten more of her inside studio but let me just say this. The woman has strobe lights fixed to soft boxes dangling form her ceiling, on sliding track's that she can pull down and swivel at any length and angle.. Amazing!! My jaw dropped at least 100 times darning my visit. If I hadn't died and gone to heaven, I was close. Oh have I mentioned she let me play with her 70-200 lens?? Yeah, it was my turn to feel bad ass. But it didn't last long once I began to realize the thing does more things than my new iphone. The overwhelmed vulnerability surrounded me yet again but at this point I was used to it, and just decided to keep watching and learning, telling myself the natural ways Stacie has will eventually come with time, patience and of course hard work.
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| One of the many ole beauties that Stacie's dad collects and she uses in her shoots. |
She also taught me the beauty of light and it is here I must admit, I felt completely out of my zone. If you haven't figured out by now you soon will that much of photography is math. I marvel at this since my entire life, the one thing I have sucked at the most, is Math. Now here I am...one year away from turning 40 and finally finding my passion... and it involves Math??
Oh freaking Bloody Hell!
But I must digress....
Because while there is math involved, it is math I can "trick," and well, that is the kind of Math I can handle.
And so, as I wrap up, I wanted to share that the main thing I took away, the key concept is despite any tricks I can come up with, despite still having so much to learn. so much to absorb, I learned that my day in the woods really was a day to learn to trust myself, trust what I have learned, focus on what I know and to just keep clicking away at those special moments in life that reminds us of why we smile in the first place.
A big thank you to Stacie and Frank Walter and if you are ever in the Wilmington/Bolivia, NC area you must check them out. Time 2 Remember.
Here are a few of her client, the high school senior, that I got to take... For this, I played with her wide angle 24-70 f/stop2.8 Lens.
Yup, add it to my list. :-)
Last but not least...
One of the Queen herself.....
Look at that face..
She is Definitely my People!
