Nontraditional Traditional Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving Les decided he wanted to do a traditional turkey dinner.

From November 2010

In the six Thanksgivings we've been together this has never been brought up before. While we were in Utah we always had Thanksgiving with our families. In Washington we ate with our neighbors or worked, sometimes both. But I think moving across the country and not knowing anyone is making Les homesick, even if he doesn't realize it.

I found it odd because we are not traditional people, certainly not by the standards Les is used to. We lived together before we got married, when we did get married it was in a courthouse and it was performed by (GASP!) a woman and I kept my last name. In fact our wedding was so nontraditional we didn't even get a gravy boat, as a result we had to pour our gravy out of a measuring cup on this, our first traditional Thanksgiving. We don't have kids, we aren't going to either. We don't go to church on Sunday (or any other day of the week for that matter). Completely nontraditional.

Even though this was a traditional turkey dinner Thanksgiving (for just the two of us we had a 10-lb. turkey, rolls, cranberry sauce, peas, green beans, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, mashed sweet potatoes, olives, fudge brownie cheesecake and pumpkin sandwich cookies), Les did all the cooking.

From November 2010

I don't cook and I don't touch dead birds, even if they have been previously plucked and frozen. While Les was cooking I took pictures, drank rum and enjoyed a Star Trek TNG marathon on BBC America.

Before we even started the big day I found it interesting that Les, who has the big traditional family with their close ties, called his mother to ask the best way to cook the turkey. They talked for approximately 5 minutes all told and she told him to read his cookbook. So I called my nontraditional dad, the man who raised two kids on his own, yes a man. He and his wife (married a year after Les and I were) talked me through every step of cooking the turkey which I then relayed to Les. Then my dad and I talked about all kinds of stuff until my phone started to die, it was almost an hour. Les's mother couldn't talk when he called her because he had interrupted her knitting of mittens. I wonder if maybe she would have been more helpful if I had called her asking for cooking advice, as is my womanly duty.

From November 2010

Some Thoughts on Photography

I decided to do the 365 project on a whim. One of my friends had been posting his shots and I clicked on it. I had been doing nothing for a while but working and sleeping and I had been looking for something to occupy my time. Honestly I was thinking volunteering at the library or learning to knit, photography hadn't really crossed my mind. But as I got looking at the site I decided I had a camera and Les had taught me the basics of photography, so I thought why not?

I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I started that night by taking a picture of the fire burning in our stove. From then on I carried my little point and shoot FujiFilm camera (that I had purchased while working at K-Mart for $38 on clearance) everywhere I went. It wasn't that hard most days to take a picture, but as I got better I became more and more frustrated by the limited capabilities of the camera. Specially I was frustrated by the lack of control of shutter speed, I love to do long exposures of water. Occasionally borrowing Les's work camera held me over a little bit.

But eventually the time came when I needed an upgrade. The point and shoot had been dropped so many times it had terrible noise in every photo, even at the lowest ISO, and I could only do so much to get rid of it in Photoshop. And due to Les's crappy but well-paying job and my super amazing Goodwill job, we had the money for an SLR. It's low end, mind, but new and well functioning and I certainly appreciate it's functions. And really what is more important the camera or the photographer?

Now to the point of this post, a recent discussion on 365 made me think. Many of my friends and family have told me I could do this for a living, my dad is particularly vocal about it. But I just don't think I'm that good. This discussion made me think about it more. I have shot a wedding, but I did it for a friend and I didn't even think about charging her. I have done a paid photo shoot of some children, again for a friend and what she paid me was really only to cover my gas (and didn't cover the ticket I got following her around town).

From Cuevas Kids

I have thought about setting up a website to sell some of my shots, but I am certainly not going to make a living off of it. I have take pictures for friends, and occasionally charged them for it, but I am certainly not going to make a living at it. But does what I do have an impact on the professional photographers out there? Does it erode the profession of photography?

I think not. If I were to sell my stuff on a website, I was thinking prints, maybe some other related things, I don't think it would really affect professional photographers in any way. In no way more than sites like Etsy.com affect the jewelry or clothing industries. An as for the jobs, I'm never going to take jobs like the one advertised in the discussion, when I do it, even if I charge, I do it for friends, for people who approach me. Neither of the shoots I reference here would have gone out and hired professional photographers if I hadn't done it. I'm not out there advertising and offering to do senior portraits or weddings. I do, in no way, consider myself a professional. And I don't think I ever will be.

Having said that, doing the 365 project has changed my life (and I'm not even done with it yet). I am more confident behind and in front of the camera, the latter something I never foresaw. And I see the world differently, I find myself noticing things I never would have if I wasn't looking for a photo. Maybe this would have been better suited at the end of my project, but the discussion really got me thinking. I certainly can't imagine my life now without photography, It started out as something to do and not I love it and it's a huge part of my life and always will be.

An interesting side note the friend whose link I clicked posted fewer than 30 photos (nothing wrong with that, it wasn't for him), I have now posted 273 consecutive photos without fillers or cheats.