Life is Grand

I took an introductory photography course, I learned to look at photography in an abstract manner. We covered Annie Leibowitz, Richard Avedon, Ansel Adams, and many more great photographers. At the time I was shooting lots of photographs of sports, so the various assignments required me to get out of my comfort zone and hit the pavement. See, not that photographing sports is easy but you are trying to capture moments and there is a distance between the individual and the photographer. As a photographer, it feels like it is just you and your camera. Whereas, taking portraits is very personal. The photographer talks, directs, and is up close and personal with someone.

Obviously I was not comfortable with portraits and sure enough my second assignment was a portrait. As anything else in life, if you find it meaningful , it is usually more enjoyable. So I decided to photograph my grandmother but when I got there and told her I was just going to follow her around take photos as she goes, she was not feeling it. So, I told her it was ok and at least we got to visit. I still needed to complete my assignment so, I tried my grandmother in-law (Lupe). This was quite the opposite scenario, when we arrived I sat apprehensively with my camera in my bag (after all I had already been turned down by my own grandmother) and Lupe says to me “get your camera” so I did. We went about the day going through photos, reminisced in her garden, she made lunch.