Drove 17 hours for 2.38 minutes
So when an eclipse happens you don't simply stay home, you go and meet it where it's at it's best. I drove way too long to see something way too short and it was very worth it. Did I mention the waffle house?
It was worth it.
Worcester, Massachusetts to Madisonville, Tennessee takes roughly seventeen hours of travel time give or take. Was it worth the hype or at least the many stops to Waffle House that I had envisioned?
A few years ago a friend said that we should go see the eclipse and that it was crossing the United States. I said sure, why not; it was so far in the future where any decision should always be a unwavering yes. Time went by, I forgot about the eclipse and then I started seeing all the news stories about the eclipse, hmmm.. maybe this is something I should check out.
My friend Pat called me up and asked if I still wanted to go down south. I checked my calendar to which I am married to one way or another and for whatever reason the stars had aligned to allow this venture. I called another friend Chris and invited him, perhaps against protocol but this is an eclipse and protocol is more so a grey area.
We took two cars loaded to to the brim with gear, well mostly loaded; we had to make room for gas station treats like gatorades and many other processed affections. Driving down eighty one south was fast, slow, hectic and mundane. Most cars went with the flow while others would cross perilously through cracks in the traffic pattern to what they assume is saving them around an hour of time. The best part of these fast and furious drivers was finding them only five cars away as we hopped off a highway.
Quick mention of our juvenile behavior. While we were traveling south we noticed many race car enthusiast around. We up north don't particularly focus on those types of sports and most often drive the flow of traffic as close to the speed limit as possible... give or take. We ran into a very entertaining way to pass the time during these long stretches of driveway. I'll mention a particular encounter which gave us great joy. A blue Toyota Prius had rocket fuel in it's tank and was pushing through traffic very aggressively, Chris and myself happened to be talking on the phone, albeit coordinating as most might do while caravanning. We simply created large gaps that looked enticing for those who might want to overtake our cars as well as the ability to stay together by slowing down or speeding up on marks to push our car back into a spot we needed to be. But for some reason every time our friend the blue Prius throttled up to those gaps we had created they would mysteriously disappear, when I say gap I really mean two or three car lengths or less. It was as simple as myself letting off the gas and Chris pulling up to meet me. We continued this for many many many many exits. When we finally freed the Prius from our speed limit fearing ways I allowed the driver to see me aloof drinking a little bit of my leftover Starbucks as I pretended not to look. I've also found that letting my arm hang out the side of my vehicle with my hand surfing the air alongside makes many who tailgate very happy.
Honorable mention to the Riverview Inn hotel where we stayed the night before the eclipse. It was a first floor room which was nice. The cigarette burns in the comforter was a nice tough as well as hair on the shower walls. Pulled back the bedsheets to find the same long hair that was adorned on the shower walls in the bed. When we headed out for dinner we found that the backdoor did not lock, there was a latch at the top which would allow the door to be opened several inches. We barricaded the door for a little piece of mind, the desk chair and an ironing board kept the room slightly more secure. Some of the ceiling tiles had been painted in the room along with the trim but only half finished and the room smelled like smoke. Postive note, the AC worked and the blowup mattress that we brought along worked wonderfully.
Arriving early in the AM hours to Kefauver park we found parking easily after being directed to the back of a field which didn't seem quite reflective of the moment we were about to experience. We made our way to a smaller parking lot adjacent to the main street and a few dozen steps away from the bathrooms. The park had a lake which primarily housed algae and it has been suggested.. fish. Some of the parks and rec had managed to get vendors in for this event to sell t-shirts, viewing glasses, drinks and bbq.
I put up the drone a few times to get the full view of the park as we waited around six hours for the eclipse to begin. We got to know our neighbors a bit better as we sat underneath a pop-up canopy we had purchased the day before. Early afternoon the eclipse finally began, everyone remarking, cheering and discerning stares upwards didn't push us any quicker to shoot a sliver taken out of the sun.
The eclipse happened slowly, very slowly, three hours slowly. It was hot out too, didn't mention that yet; low nineties. We had set up all of our gear now, drone was out, tripod and cameras positioned. The sun was positioned high in the sky, we laid on our backs and arched our necks while tilting our gaze through the viewfinder to focus each time on each subtle movement.
The week leading up to this event was laden with how-to youtube videos, articles and other periodicals on how to view the eclipse which I will sum up here. Don't look at the sun, just look at it through the glasses, don't bother taking photos, use a solar filter if you do take pictures, don't look at the sun, ND filters won't work and what equipment will and won't work. Here's what we did with that info... pretty much nothing. We knew about solar filters, we brought some big lenses, big tripods and plenty of snack food. When you're photographing a T-Rex or a trans-dimensional being doing a backflip then it doesn't matter much which camera or lens your using. The same goes for the eclipse, you have a big enough lens and something to put in-between there to darken it then chances are you're going to get a pretty damn good photo.
So I had never really taken photos of the sun before, never attempted or enough had the thought cross my mind. The most interesting thing I found was being able to see the sunspots across the sun. You knew you had the right exposure when you had a yellow center and orange rind protecting that. We took photos of this smaller and smaller crescent as we neared the main attraction, full totality.
The eclipse started to near totality, the shadows grew sharper, the light stranger; almost desaturating and dulling everything. These details couldn't really be captured with a simple Iphone because of the ISO compensation that is employed through Iphone magic. The light dimmed further and my car's headlights and taillights turned on, we got our signal to focus more. I started shooting by just pressing the buttons as quick as possible, sliding my thumb across the back wheel of my camera adjusting the aperture and snapping photos as I did so. Alternating with shutter speed the same way as I fired off photos. We only had two minutes and thirty eight seconds in our location to get these once in a lifetime photos. The best photos would be taken at the beginning and end of totality showing the beads and the diamond ring of the eclipse. The totality ended and each minute or two we had to slightly adjust our settings to recalibrate the exposure. Once I was back to getting the golden orange of the sun once again I relaxed on my duty of photos.
We slowly packed up, picked up, parted ways and shipped out. The rest of the story is packed highways, slow meanders down backroads and a much better hotel room. Thanks for reading my story.
A thousand images!
What's an apprioate amount of wedding photos to receive? I talk about the upside and downside of what the client receives when the wedding is over. All wedding photographers and future brides and grooms should read this.
So this just popped into my head, this idea of a thousand images or more for wedding photos. This is something I support, I've always support this from day one. I am writing this for brides, grooms and fellow photographers.
There will always be criticism about the amount of wedding photos you share with clients or on the other end of the spectrum receive from a photographer because more often than not you wouldn't mind a few dozen or hundred more to look at or a bunch more to share.
So originally I would give upwards of fifteen hundred images because I felt like I was holding images captive. If I had fifteen hundred images but only gave them five hundred, why? I prided myself in giving this extra value to my brides, grooms, clients, friends and family. Everyone was very happy after all at all the extra photos.
So the images that are completely cut from a wedding that are not used are the following, peoples backs, unflattering faces (not to be confused with a funny face or two which the bridal couple will enjoy), bad micro-expression, unflattering light, blurry photo, obscene, unflattering photo of bridal couple, duplicates of same pose unless there was a significant change in facial expression or posture possibly, bad hand placement during group photos. This is only a small multitude of examples of reasons.
The remainder of the photos are variations of moments, different angles, views and composition. These are the usable photos, the ones that can be saved, shared and looked back on. Some of the photos are a series of an event happening and not just the pinnacle of the moment.
So i'm going to start with the downside of sharing this amount of photos. We as wedding photographers typically take more photos than we need. We do this because we don't know who's going to blink or if someone will suddenly have a horrible twitch in their face or move their hand to look like a t-rex's arm. Lots of photos, lots of options, lower risk of fucking up, better chance of getting something damn near close to magical. With all these photos you have to go through and perform triage, saying yes or no to which photos live and which ones die; a very important responsibility. More photos to look through can mean longer wait times for clients and also longer processing time for photographers.
Now when you give someone fifteen hundred photos that means they have lots of options, maybe too many options. The first dance photos maybe two dozen instead of a select six. When you have two dozen photos verses six that means that the most outstanding, perfect photo will take a bit longer to catch your eye or stand out. It also creates the perception that you quickly edited the photos and are giving them everything without selecting the bad ones to get rid of. You are also putting your photos up against your friends photos or other bride's photos where they have gotten the top fifteen percent of the wedding photos that were taken that day.
Let's use a box of donuts as comparison. I'm going to present you with a dozen donuts, some are chocolate frosted, a few chocolate frosted with sprinkles and maybe a chocolate glazed as well as the jelly, a french (You actually only capitalize french if it is a product of said country) cruller, and an additional complement of donuts. Now lets take that nice looking dozen and put it up against six good looking donuts, jelly, chocolate frosted, french cruller, blueberry, glazed, old fashioned. So you have a perfect assortment but maybe not a bunch of variations on donuts.
So here's the upside of sharing as many photos as is reasonable. The most important reason first, you don't know who is important to the bride or groom. We don't know if they've seen their uncle or aunt in the past twenty years. We don't know if they don't get along with their parents and have reconciled for the sake of family and wedding. We don't know if their parents are divorced and this si the first time they've been in a room together in ten years. Their parents may live on the other side of the country, their sister may be in the army and home for the first time in two years.
So when you make the choice to not include a photo of Uncle John giving a hug or crying at the wedding then you forsaking a once in a lifetime moment. You are the judge, jury and executioner when it comes to the selection of photos given. Why not lessen the risk of incorporating beautiful moments that you might not realize are happening right in front of your lens.
I once had a wedding where I was going through the routine of getting all the moments, all the guests and performing top notch wedding photography. I spent around a month editing the photos and ordering the flash drive and finally presenting the photos. I found out that the bride's aunt had died shortly after from cancer and she was only in maybe three or four photos. She asked if I had more. Apparently the aunt had raised her since she was a preteen, she had meant more to get than her own mother in some sense. I had no idea and this killed me that I couldn't do more for this bride. I'm only sharing this because I want to really impress upon you that we don't know who is special to the bride or groom and we have no idea the great history in everyone's relationships. The wedding guests are chosen very carefully and they're there to witness a huge landmark in a person's life.
So when you give variation, option, choices you are allowing them to choose the best version of themselves in photos. You are giving permission for them to remember moments that they will most likely have missed on their wedding day. It's a little bit extra work to edit a few extra hundred photos, but you get better and faster at it. Is it all worth it, sharing this many photos? Damn right it's worth it and I don't regret it for one second. Those extra photos usually mean that everyone who attended that wedding can find a flattering, fun and amazing photo of themselves or someone they love. This means they share, they brag and hopefully they say who took their photo.
I always argue about this with fellow photographers, I think I always will. I started giving out these extra photos as an added value to my product but through the years i've learned that this added value isn't quantity, it's beautiful moments that I didn't know were happening.
How to be a successful photographer.
Want to be a successful photographer? The key to success is pretty simple, this is the speech I give everyone who asks me how to make money as a photographer or how to become a professional photographer.
So I just spent the past hour writing this blog out and decided that It dragged on too long. It didn't have a point or it touched on too many. I'm going to make this clear, simple and short. I have given this speech to multiple people who ask me how to get into photography. I get asked quite regularly to take people on as an assistant or to bring them to a wedding i'm shooting or show them how to make money with photography. This is what I tell them.
If I was a painter, a mason or made money doing carpentry I would pour all of my efforts into it. I would have the best brushes, watch videos on painting, try out different canvases, learn to make my own canvases. I would make sure everyone knew I was a painter, I might even have my own studio space just to paint. I have all the coolest painters clothes, aprons, gloves, hats to keep my hair out of my face. I have a cool logo that lets people know i'm a painter with my name in it and website. I would also write about my paintings, enter them into shows. I would make sure I was on all social medias and I would pay someone to scan or get copies of my paintings online to share with everyone. I would make shirts and broadcast what I do. Everyone would want to come to me to have a painting done because they know i'm a painter because that's all I talk about. You could find all the books on my shelf have a common theme, painting. My instagram would feature my own paintings and a link to my website which has my work and also ways to purchase my paintings. I also would love to go to Meetup.com gatherings to meet other painters. My good friend is also a painter from Boston and we talk a few days a week on the phone and he does some things similar to me and some different things from me but we both love painting regardless. We regularly talk about how to price our work and what people will pay for it and what's fair and how to treat people who don't pay. I would also be doing some work for charity with my paintings, maybe a themed project to help support a group, cause or person. When I do charity work, that gets shared on social media and talked about and every once and awhile my name will get thrown out to a commissioned painting or a series that someone will auction on. I love to go see famous painters speak as well and I always check in to whatever place i'm at to brag about my painting related activities.
If you truly love what you do and want more of it then show the world. Focus all of your efforts on it, leap without looking, live without the money and success and know that it's coming and it will. I'm where I am right now because i've made sacrifices with my time, money and relationships. I have had multiple people over the years tell me that it won't work and that you can't make money being a photographer. When I hear this all I can think of is how sweet it will be when i'm sleeping in or in a foreign city while they are scheduled to be sitting in a cubicle in front of a computer for the foreseeable future.
I love what I do and wouldn't change a thing. I wouldn't have the friends I have, the life I have without buying that first camera, without shooting that first wedding, I regularly take all of my profits and roll them back to equipment costs and take work off and go on a "vacation" where i'm just taking photos so I have interesting stuff to share on social media. I also give up time with friends and family to spend with strangers taking their photos.
In the end i'm doing something important, i'm capturing memories that someone will have forever.
