Wednesday, January 31, 2018

I CARRY THE TRIPOD (Confessions of a Photographer's Wife)



Yes, that’s me.  Posing for Jim, my budding photographer husband, wearing my requisite red coat, adjusting the tripod so it’s visible, wondering when this will end.  It all started so innocently.  Jim has always loved taking pictures, but just a few years ago he upgraded from a film-type Olympus to a Nikon D-300.  That’s when life changed. 
Now upgrading seems simple to me – you just go to the store and buy a new camera.  Turns out I hadn’t a clue.  First, Jim went through the agonizing process of picking between Nikon and Canon, talked to several professional photographer friends, studied each camera, and chose the Nikon.  Don’t ask me what led to the decision… I’m just along for the ride at this point.
Having made the critical decision, again I figured we’d just go shopping… but NO!  Before he went to the camera store, he spent about three months studying the manual, figuring out how to set and operate his new toy, and preparing for the purchase.  At last the day arrived, and you’d have thought we’d had another child.  OK, perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but not by much.  When he made the purchase, we were living in Alaska, and there was no shortage of subject matter.  Everywhere we looked, everywhere we went, the camera accompanied us.  It was at that point that I started to become a believer when I realized that Jim could shoot as many pictures as he wanted, and we didn’t have to pay to develop them to see what he’d shot.  I suddenly realized that I could learn to love this new camera… that is until I learned how long it could take to review, eliminate, edit, and finalize down from the 400 pictures he took each time he picked up his new baby.
One advantage of Jim’s new hobby was that I realized I’d never lack for gift ideas.  In the beginning, one needs a dedicated computer for the new “family member”.  Then there’s the camera case, which turned into a backpack, which turned into a larger backpack, which led to a smaller travel pack.  The lens that came with the camera worked great, but what about those moose and grizzly shots that just didn’t look large enough?   And how about the pretty little wild cranberry blossoms that didn’t quite fill the frame when he got down on his knees to shoot?  To save myself from going broke buying gifts, we were fortunate to find another camera-fanatic who was upgrading to full-frame format and wanted to unload his old lenses to feed his new habit.  Four lenses at bargain prices didn’t seem excessive at that point.
Now Jim is somewhat enthusiastic, and we found ourselves haunting the aisles of Barnes and Noble, searching for photography books – adding a whole new area for gifting, thanks to his habit of emailing me links for the appropriate title.
Somewhere during the process, we decided to make a move to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, bringing us closer to the world of accessibility to classes with some of Jim’s idols like Art Wolfe.  It just happened that Mr. Wolfe was conducting a class on the Peninsula so Jim’s anniversary gift was his attendance at the class.  He loved it, and suddenly, I starting hearing phrases like “retirement and supplementing our income with photography.”
Fortunately, Jim has had a wonderful eye and serious dedication from the beginning and our journey is starting to bring others to realize what we have known for some time – the fact that he has a gift with a camera.  Last week he had the opportunity to sell his first images to an admirer.  It’s a start, and a wonderful boost to his dream.
Where do I fit into all this?  I get to spend lots of time in beautiful places, I stay in shape by hiking to all sorts of interesting areas, I can feed one of my own personal obsessions by reading all those lovely photography books, and perhaps, most importantly of all, I get to carry the tripod!

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