To be percieved and to percieve in turn is a strange game and I’m not sure how much I like it. I have two photography gigs this month, which I guess makes me a professional photographer, if the only bar for that particular club is pay. The first gig was tonight, I just spent an hour driving back from it. It was a party for some friends. They were celebrating a wedding after the fact. Together and small by the beach of lake Willoughby.

In August a friend passed through Vermont and I spent some time with them and I took their picture. It was good craic, a grand time. I like taking their picture an awful lot. I wasn’t paid to do it, the fun of it and the resulting image was reason enough for the trouble. I’m not sure I’d’ve done the picture taking I did tonight for free, but it was still pretty fun. 

To be paid to do photography does increase the barrier between you and your audience a shade, I don’t think in a good way, but I can’t love everybody. While photographing my friend or photographing Abby or photographing my dad or my mom the affection and love I have for them shines through in the image. I suspect that even bad photographers can make great images if they love the subject enough. Likewise a good photographer can make good images of something they don’t particularly care for. 

So how’d I do, a decent photographer, making pictures of an event and people I don’t really know very well apart from one? Pretty well I reckon. I believe it helps that the people there have so much history and rapport and love for one another, that shines through in the images. Or at least I hope it does, I haven’t looked at the picture just yet. I’ll do that tomorrow.