Clara grows up, Liam learns to use a camera

It’s been a little while, so here are some recent pictures of the kids and me. I’m happy to report that my relationship with Clara is really coming along. She and I have spent a lot more time together recently, and as she grows less dependent on Lisa for everything, I’m able to step in and enjoy her more. She is a smiley little girl with a really fun personality. She’s not a really snuggly baby like her brother Liam, but she does love to interact. She’s excited to see people she recognizes, and makes a jerky little waving movement with her arm that we think might be intentional. At least she seems to do it when she’s greeting someone. She also gurgles something that sounds like, ‘Hi.’ She learned to say ‘Mama’ while we were camping. She’s not quite to ‘Dada’ yet, but that’s not for lack of effort on my part. Liam might be her favorite person in the world. She loves to watch him run around, and is always laughing at even his simplest movements. Clara is a joy, and we continue to cherish every bit of her growth and progress.





Liam is starting to learn how to use a camera. He shows genuine interest in this. He has an old, used children’s book about how to use your 110 pocket camera (anyone remember those?). It’s narrated by a bear, and teaches about basic lighting and composition, complete with self-assignments. He’s still at the age where he loves to be read to, and doesn’t much care what we read. It’s very special. He has a summer recipe book that we read him, and he doesn’t seem to mind that it’s not narrative material.

The other day, Liam picked up my Pentax K-1000 camera, which is a 20- or 30-year old silver fully manual film camera. It’s a complicated thing to operate, even for an adult. And it’s heavy. But he loved using it, and now knows how to look through the viewfinder, click the shutter release, and wind the film to the next frame. The other night he was taking pictures of Clara, which they both really enjoyed. There was no film in the camera, but I think sooner or later we’ll have to try that part out, too.





We’re back online!

Hi, Shinnfans! I apologize for our absence, but our server went down. You’re looking at andrewandlisa.org on a brand new server. It probably doesn’t mean anything to you, but this represents a WHOLE LOT OF work for me. I have to go work on other people’s web sites now. Whew!

See you around the interwebs,
Andrew

Be a photographer, not a business person!

So, people ask me all the time, “What do I need to do to make money taking pictures?” I usually try to be very helpful, because I truly want everyone to succeed and do well. But it occurred to me the other day that maybe I shouldn’t encourage people to enter the portrait photography market. It’s not the only way to make money in photography, but it’s the one people usually ask me about.

I think, instead, that I should encourage people to sharpen their photography skills for pure enjoyment. I recently talked to a very successful, well-known, high-level photographer. I asked this person what his/her plan is for improving their photo skills. This person’s answer: “I don’t. I’m a business person, not a photographer.” That’s when it hit me that success for a photo studio is not about the quality of photos, but about the quality of the business that you can build around your photos. That’s not bad news for me; I enjoy running a business (most of the time).

But it is bad for my artistically-minded friends who would rather take cool pictures than play with spreadsheets. Here are some useful questions to ask if you’re thinking about doing portrait photography for money:

  • Do I have a good grasp of accounting?
  • Would I rather make art, or figure out merchandising strategy?
  • Do I like to sleep?
  • How strong are my computer skills? They’ll have to be well above average for portrait photography.
  • Am I any good at setting up systems for workflow, accounting, computer networks, business analysis, etc?

    • Now, setting up a business is not rocket science. Most people can do it with enough time and determination. But you should know, if you’re thinking about getting into portrait photography as a business, that you’re doing business, not just photography. Even if you’re working out of your home. It seems like something you can get into on a very small scale, but it won’t be like that for long. For a whole host of reasons that experience alone can explain, it’s far more complicated than you think. It’s more like setting up a manufacturing operation than opening a retail business.

    No, I haven’t given up on the idea of art, and yes, I do get to use nice camera equipment. But I just want to be totally honest and not encourage people to try something they may regret in the long term. Instead of opening a business, try making images that you love. Work hard on them. Learn all you can. Don’t feel like you have to be professional to be a great photographer. Just be a great photographer!

    New pictures of the kids and me!

    Here’s Clara asleep at Ellyce and Vidal’s wedding.



    Here’s Liam enjoying what he calls “Daddy Milk”, which is really Keifer from Trader Joe’s. Keifer is a special treat for Daddy, and it resembles milk, so Liam made the logical jump to calling it Daddy Milk.



    Here’s a rare picture of me. This is what it looks like when I’m teaching you photography. Lisa is using a wide-angle lens to test the light in the shade of a tree at Ellyce and Vidal’s wedding. When I’m teaching, I often offer myself as a subject without bothering to smile or pose. This leads to lots of bad pictures of me, which are the most common type I have. Oh, well. I guess this one’s not too bad.



    Pride and Prejudice AND ZOMBIES!

    I tripped across this today whilst looking for new audio books. It’s an entire re-write of the classic novel (well and respectfully done, as far as I can see) to include Zombies, of all things. I listened to a sample, and was read by a young lady with an English accent (how appropriate) and included not over-liberal references to zombies. It’s real, it’s funny, and it’s real funny. I might not have picked Pride and Prejudice as a welcome candidate for remixing, but I’m sure glad someone did! The thematic contrast is an eyebrow-raiser at all levels.
    Here’s a link: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!
    Enjoy!

    We’re famous on the interwebs

    My office was featured on some random web site about home technology. Here’s the link: www.unplggd.com/unplggd/final-frame/flickr-finds-shinns-take-on-glassy-classy-085084.

    Sorry

    I haven’t posted here in a long time, have I? I’ve been posting nearly daily at www.shinnphoto.com/blog, but mostly photos. Sorry the meaningful content has been lacking. Anyone have anything they want to hear or read about in particular?

    Car accident in Reedley

    Two cars collided at the corner of G and 11th Street this morning.  Both were going fast and one ran a red light, according to witnesses.  Everyone got out of the cars alive and without serious injury.  Here are some photos:

    Why religion and politics shouldn’t mix

    This is one of my favorite topics. I’ve been thinking about it and reading about it for some time now. I don’t have it figured out to my satisfaction, but I came to a new thought this morning, so I figured I should share.

    I was pondering the nature of religion and the nature of politics, and I realized they have something inverse in common. The reason religion and politics should not mix is partly due to their relationship to compromise.

    Religion in general and Protestant Christianity in particular should not compromise. The philosophical game of religion is played on the field of truth claims.  Negotiating or compromising on truth claims is like kicking field goals for your opponent.  It’s not a good idea.  This is the (very good) reason that people have died for their religious convictions throughout the centuries.

    Politics, on the other hand, lives with an entirely different relationship to compromise.  For a politcian, compromise IS the game.  Legislature and governance is all about negotiating between competing interests.  If different interests didn’t exist, governments wouldn’t need to exist, either.  That’s why politics is so easy to criticize, fun to talk about (e.g. ‘Those idiots in [Washington, Sacramento, Madison, Dakar, etc.] wouldn’t know the right thing to do if it bit them on the hand!”), and so demanding of wisdom.  Compromise IS the task of government, and it’s not an easy one.

    So every time a pastor asks his congregation to vote a particular way, he is speaking from one realm into another: he is speaking from a position that’s used to wielding divine authority to make absolute truth claims into a realm where issues always have different sides and a single voice bearing the best idea is not guaranteed to make headway.  In politics, strength of conviction falls subservient to the power of coalition.  That’s not a fault of politics; it’s just the nature of politics.  But this pastor is likely to create an unproductive voting bloc.  He’s likely to create or encourage a group of people to take a position they can’t back down from.  In the end, it makes for bad politics and bad blood.

    And every time a governmental leader speaks toward the realm of religion, it’s natural (but altogether inappropritate) that he should ask for compromise and ecumenism.  He, who is used to compromise as a way of doing business, naturally expects this from the realm of religion.  And he’s dead wrong.  Religion thrives on truth claims, and asking religious people to deny what they know as truth for some greater good is like asking religion to drink poison.

    There are many outworkings of this continued tension between church and state, and they’re likely to be messy.  I can’t claim any kind of special ability to negotiate such perilous waters just because I understand the larger principle.  But I can offer one guiding question for discussion: what can we do to build up a HEALTHY wall of separation ‘twixt the two very important areas?

    Pictures of the whole family!

    We shot a minimum depthy of field family session at the end of the day on Friday. Enjoy!