Photography Exhibit

For my birthday my mother got me tickets to a play.  I was so excited since I love plays and it was so expensive it's not something I would have done for myself.
Anyway, while sitting in the theatre waiting for the play to begin I was reading the program and saw there was a photography exhibit by a local photographer that was open for viewing during intermission.  YAY!
My husband and I ran upstairs as soon as the house lights came on for intermission.  The display was amazing.

I know who the photographer was and I am familiar with his family portrait work.  He is a very "upper end" photographer in the area and has been around for years and years and has a studio with a garden attached.  However, these were abstracts he had taken in Europe.  They were such a departure from his normal work.  They were almost all gallery wraps on canvas.  Some were prints mounted on steel squares.  All of them were incredibly saturated with color and quite modern.  I was so elated.  This photographer is known for classic portraiture and "old school" posing.  Anyway, I was so inpsired.  I wanted to go find random things in the city to photograph myself. 
I was listening to other people comment on the work.  They were just play-goers and probably not photographers of any sort.  Their comments were so interesting to me.  They were trying to appreciate the work, but didn't fully understand it, I guess.
Anyway, I feel so grateful that I stumbled onto the opportunity to go see this exhibit and how inpired I became and for the respect I developed for this photographer after seeing his masterpieces in large prints in real life.

Every now and again I get a speech from fellow photographers at my level about how I should raise my prices to compete with photographers of the caliber of the one mentioned above.  I realized last night why I won't be doing that anytime soon and how far I have to go.  I am but a mere apprentice compared to the masters of photography.  I have so far to go, but what an exciting and beautiful journey it can be.  I realized again last night why I love photography and how the challenge of creating something amazing gives me such a charge.

Thanks for letting me ramble.

Thanks Marian
Perhaps I will do that.  I would love to know I inspired someone else as well.  I guess the only thing keeping me from that is the fear he will look down on me because I am the type of photographer he lectures about that "steals" his business.  You know, us younger photographers that shoot digital...  I guess I shouldn't care if he respects me if my intentions are to thank him

May I ask whose exhibit it was?  The curiosity is killing me.

Susie: Well said!

Most, if not all of us are in the position there are people that admire our work but we see the work of others and can't imagine being that good.

LOL, I love the baseball movie reference.
I know I will never be the best, how can you?  Like you said, because there are so many people in the world.
We all have talents and strengths and weaknesses and things to work on.
The key is to not only develop the weak things but to capitalize on your strengths as well.
In the past I have lost myself trying to be the photographer someone else was trying to become or was.  I know what some of my strengths are and some honest friends have pointed out other strengths.  Those are where I am trying to focus right now, while working on those other things I am not so great at so they aren't problems.

Susie,

If he can be researched on the web, we will all care.  I don't see any reason not to publish his name here.

The fact that you are allowing his work to affect your pricing is nonsense.  Your prices should be based on nothing more than how busy you are.  If you are shooting more sessions than you want, your prices are too low.  If you are not shooting enough, your prices are too high.


Your prices should not be based on anything else, least of all on your perception of the quality of your work or its comparison to the work of someone else.

Ed

I was just talking about Walker Evans, here's a modern twist from Busath. Cool