And now I am blogging?

So I need to blog. I am having a hard enough time being the choice of professionals for headshots in Charlotte, NC. I am lucky enough to do actor headshots, business headshots and headshots for models in Charlotte, NC.

Blog. That’s the word. Ten years ago I had never heard the word. Didn’t know what blog even meant. But I am a headshot photographer in Charlotte, NC! Why would I blog?

That’s what my friends tell me. That’s what my wife tells me and many fellow photographers seem to say. That’s what my web designer tells me. That’s what everyone tells me. I need to blog. I just can’t understand why you would be interested in what I think, what I feel, what I post. What the Hell do I blog about anyway? What is a blog?

My web designer thinks that if I post anything, I’ll get important backlinks, interest in my content. Oh yea-I need to produce more great content! Content about being a headshot photographer in Charlotte, NC?

Well, it’s a new world out there and a far cry from me shooting film, using manual focus and manual exposures. It’s been a long time since I have read the little box that film comes in for hints about exposure or tried to maneuver my aperature ring and shutter speed dials to a point where that little needle rests directly in the middle of the plus and the minus.

Photography has come a long, long way. And now I am blogging?

And I can move along slowly, which I am-kicking and screaming the entire way or I can add to all the “content” out there and try and give a little back to professional photographers and amateurs alike.

I can remember going across I-81 in Harrisonburg, VA when I was an undergraduate at Madison College to “practice” my follow focus. There was nothing but cowfields across from Madison College then...and I started my long photography career at Madison College, but I graduated from James Madison University. Things do change!

I’d take a 300 mm lens I bought used from my instructor there and follow the trucks up and down the highway. When I thought I had a good feel for the focusing, I would put a roll of Tri-X into my camera and shoot that. It was proof I knew what I was doing when it came to pulling focus. It cost some money to get the proof, and an hour or so developing the film, but I had proof. And it was well-worth that investment. My college friends ended up paying for a lot of my beer!

I remember saying to myself, I’ll never spend more than $400 for a camera body. Back when I made that revelation, a camera was just a light-tight box that you would put film into and it had a lens you could focus the light on the other end. Now they are computers. Much like cellphones, digital cameras fill a ton of needs I never thought that I would need. 

By the way, I just spent about $4000 for a computer that is called a still camera. It not only makes still pictures, but also records video in a number of different ways. I just want to be the choice for headshots in Charlotte, NC-just want to produce stills. It’s nice to have all those little extras-I just rarely use them. 

I remember when one of the camera techs bought us an auto-focus lens to try at the motorsport track years ago. No way that lens could focus as fast or as accurate as me. And it didn’t and I vowed never to use that technology again. I use it now -every time I pick up a camera. I had a tough time thinking I could tell an editor I didn’t get the picture because the camera wouldn’t focus.

And I never though that I would be longing for another job-another newspaper staff to join or magazine to decorate.

The world changes.

After graduating from JMU I had a number of newspaper jobs before I came to Charlotte, NC to join the staff at The Charlotte Observer. It was a very cool time to be here. Charlotte was going from being a small Southern town to one of the great cities in this country. We got an NBA team here and eventually, an NFL team. The NHL moved from Hartford Conn. to Raleigh and the professional teams wanted to feed off the success of the many colleges that have won big here, in both Carolinas. 

I was lucky enough to cover the world and photographed my first final four tournament when Duke lost to Seaton Hall and Rumeal Robinson hit a huge free throw to give Michigan it’s title. That was in Seattle, Washington.

Man, what a fun time I had. I remember sitting in my $250 a night hotel room and looking at all the free stuff I got from being a member of the media and pinching myself that someone was actually paying me to sit courtside and photograph the finest college basketball on earth. I couldn’t get all free stuff on the plane. I tossed a bunch of it. 

So there’s been a ton of travel since then. I went to Vietnam, Nicaragua when the arms for drugs thing was going on. I toured  Easetern Europe just after the Wall came down in Berlin. I actually drove through the Brandenburg Gate from Western Europe into the East. It was like going from the colorized part of the Wizard of Oz movie to the black-and-white part. What an amazing life I have had. A life that will never be repeated by newspaper staffs again.

When I first came to Charlotte, there were five bosses and maybe 27 or 28 photographers. We, at The Observer had a staff, of photographers separate from the newsroom guys that just shot advertisements and a team in the darkroom to help photographers from both staffs and to keep the chemistry levels up and the place clean.

I remember when I flew into the airport, I could see the skyline. The newspaper building was huge and anchored that skyline. Now there isn’t a building for staffers to go to. What I really miss is working with outspoken, creative and thoughtful people who didn’t mind having their ideas shared with others. Man, I could use some of that thought in my headshot business now!

It will never be the same and I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I hate seeing all the empty chairs at the news briefings.

So, I’ll start blogging. I seriously won’t commit to any timeline. This may be my only blog post. But I think I’ll try and tell some of the crazy stories that I have amassed over the years. I find that Southerners are prone to do the craziest things.

I am shooting pictures, digitally now. I have a studio in Mount Holly, NC that I share with Mike McCarn, an incredibly talented artist that smiles a lot at my ideas. He doesn’t say much-just smiles. I use  packs and light modifiers that you won’t find many “available” light photographers using.

Our studio, above Awaken Gallery has gorgeous light supplied by a North Facing window. It really is gorgeous. I promise to talk about what I have learned in the studio along with some of the crazy stories I picked up working at the newspaper. And there are some crazy ones. But I’ll only blog about any of that if this moves forward.

 As one reporter said to me constantly whenever we walked out of an interview that was tough “ya just can’t make this shit up.”

 And you just can’t. But you can tell those stories again and again and maybe-just maybe embellish them just a bit. I guess this is a blogpost!