bermuda was beautiful, albeit overrun with tourists and fanny packs.  i’ve never had an urge to visit bermuda but am glad we went~ the water is gorgeous and the people couldn’t be friendlier.

the highlight of the trip was the day i rented a moped and drove from kings wharf (where we docked) to hamilton – about 25 minutes away. jeff had to work that day and i decided it would be fun to throw my camera over my shoulder and have the freedom to stop whenever and wherever i felt like taking photos.  it was a brilliant idea – it was seriously one of the most fun days in recent memory.  when i got back to the ship and told everyone what i did, though, they were shocked: they’d all been told not to risk riding on the roads in bermuda because they are narrow and the locals drive like mad men.  they were right: the roads were narrow and the traffic was crazy but it was so much fun.

a few photos from my moped adventure and more from the day jeff and i took a ferry over to st. george:

enjoy ~

The iPhone Fashion Shoot – Lee Morris Shoots With The 3GS Fstoppers from FStoppers on Vimeo.

everything is good, now, but i am ridiculously behind in posting and returning phone call and emails.  thanks for everyone’s patience.  in the meantime, here’s a photo from our family vacation to hilton head last month:

(the scrape on jack’s nose?  yep, he walked into a fence.)

thanks!

it’s on CMT and i’ve been a fan of it for a while.  last week, though, the strict family was from maryland and one of the things they did with the teenagers who were visiting them is to take them to the ulman cancer fund for young adults.

my husband is the president of the board and i have done some photography projects for them in the past.  they are a fantastic organization and we love supporting them.  so, of course, i had to watch the episode, right?  what i didn’t expect was to see my photos in the episode.  it was so cool! it made me feel like i had actually used photography for a greater purpose.  hats off to the staffers over at UCF who toil tirelessly to help support young adults (and their families) with cancer.

(wait until the end for the close up of my photo.  if you’re reading this on facebook, you’ll need to go to my website to view the video clip)

until the lieutenant governor showed up along with his staff photographer.  it wasn’t the lt. governor who rattled my nerves but the other photographer: a guy several years older than me, carrying a huge black bag of backup gear, who i imagined had probably been a photojournalist or other “real” photographer in a previous professional life.

in other words, not a hack like me.

i immediately started second guessing myself (he had a flash. why wasn’t i using a flash? was the ambient light too low to capture the image without camera shake? do i look like a newbie without a flash? i HAVE a flash, why didn’t i bring it?). i found myself listening for the click of his camera to see what he was taking photos of; only once did our fingers press the button at the same time.  and so the doubt continued all night.

i didn’t want to download the photos for fear of what i might find.  but i had to get them over to my contact, deborah, and so i loaded them into lightroom this morning.  and you know what?  i’m really happy with them.  i like the photos i took and flash or no flash, the photos look like ones i would normally take.  i’m not a total hack and even if i don’t have 30 years experience or a background at a newspaper, i’m an ok photographer. i hate being plagued with self doubt and wonder when – if?- it ever goes away.

my contact, deborah, with lieutenant governor anthony brown:

the lieutenant governor talking to guests at the event:

i’m really happy to share this website with you guys:  Megan Evans Photography.  megan is my assistant and 2nd shooter for bar & bat mitzvahs.  i first met her about 4 years ago when i was working on building my portfolio after a prolonged absence from photography.  she was a friend of a friend and i shot her then 9-month-old daughter, finley.  fin is now 4, has a baby sister and megan and i have remained friends.

a while back megan emailed me to ask if i needed an assistant (whoo boy ~ did i ever) and if i would be interested in having her help me out.  it has turned out to be a fantastic working relationship; anyone who knows me knows that i am awful at returning phone calls and following up in email.  not exactly the best way to run a business which is why megan has proven to be a god-send.

i am thrilled that she is venturing out on her own and that she is charging for her services (per this post from wednesday) although i have to wonder if i’m going to be looking for a new assistant soon. 

congrats, megan!

one of the (many) blogs i subscribe to is written by liz gumbinner, one of the owners of the cool mom picks website.  she also has a personal blog and it’s one of my favorites.  she writes frequently about the problems with mommy bloggers giving away free ad space on their blogs to big corporations and the need for these woman to earn money from their hard work – and not just be so flattered that a big corporation noticed them that they are allowing them to advertise for free. 

her post today, however, resonated with me as a photographer because of the proliferation in the photography industry of what are (snidely) called MWAC: moms with a camera.  i don’t like the term but i understand how and why it exists. lots of the “portrait” photographers around are moms who started taking photos of their kids and decided to call themselves a photographer.

i get it.  and truthfully?  i don’t care.  lots of industry vets complain about the newbies and how they are destroying the industry (whine, whine, whine) but i believe that most of them will flame out on their own.  being a photographer isn’t just taking pretty photos, creating a catchy logo or having pretty packaging; it’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes.  the photo session is the easiest part: there’s editing, retouching, billing, administrative work and all the crap that comes with running a *business*.

the part i do care about, though, is that most of these photographers don’t charge (or charge enough) for their work.  i can’t tell you how many times i’ve heard from women on photography forums that they have a hard time charging clients because they ‘just love what they do so much’ and feel like ‘everyone should have beautiful portraits’.

um, screw that.

if you’re running a business, you should be making money ~ otherwise you just have a ridiculously expensive hobby.  does the sales person at nordstrom give you a new pair of joe’s jeans because she thinks everyone deserves to have jeans that flatter their butts?  hell, no.  so why are you giving *your* work/time/effort away for free?  you giving your work away for free affects the rest of us: it trains clients to expect to pay little or nothing because the “photographer” down the street will do it for free. liz tweeted last night, “Just lost a potential sponsor for CMP because they have “mom bloggers who will advertise for us for free” – so hey! Thanks for that!”

if you don’t put a fair price on your work for fear that people won’t pay it then you shouldn’t be in business (and not just the photography business but *any* business). i know lots of moms who have discovered a love of photography and are working hard to make it a business ; they are talented photographers but they also realize that their work is worth being paid for and they charge accordingly. respect, people.  if you don’t respect your work then how the hell do you expect anyone else to?

it takes a while to gain the confidence to charge a fair price for your work.  some people won’t pay it and that’s ok.  it’s business, not personal.  and at the end of the day, if you’re not making money then you aren’t running a business, you’re just taking pretty pictures.

the best line from liz’s blog  post today:

Even if you’re just starting out, even if you have 10 readers and two of them are your toddler twins, your time and effort and endorsement are worth something.

the boys i’ve shot are – almost all – nervous (but won’t admit it) and when i ask them what they are most worried about they all tell me they are afraid of forgetting their lines when they get up on the bimah to read.  pretty normal.  i would be, too.  but the girls?  all of them are cool and composed the morning of their bat mitzvah and when i ask them what they are most nervous about they look at me and shrug and say, ‘nothing.’  like it’s an everyday event to get up in front of hundreds of people and read aloud in a different language.

sarah was no exception.  her mom told me that sarah was so prepared that if the rabbi had called them two months ago and told them the bat mitzvah had to be that week that sarah would have been ready.  wow.  these kids amaze me.  having converted to judaism as an adult, i never had a bat mitzvah and truth be told, i’m not so keen on the idea of having one.  i give these kids a lot of credit for the amount of studying and preparation they go through for this day. mazel tov, sarah!

sarah and her family (who were so much fun and a total joy to photograph!) on her beautiful day: