MomShots

I checked out a book from the library called The Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing by Philippe L. Gross.  It is filled with a lot of beautiful black and white images and I look forward to reading deeper into the book and being inspired by his photos.  I keep trying to read the book but haven’t made much progress.  Being a mom is like that, right?  

I did read most of the introduction and he tells a story that has had me thinking all day.  I’ve been turning it over and over in my mind and really relating it to me and my skills.

The story is basically that one of his first cameras was a Hasselblad.  Now if you’re new to photography, like me, you may not know that astronauts such as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of the famous Apollo 11-17 Moon Landings used Hasselblad cameras to take these incredible photos of the moon.  They are really high end cameras and are capable of some amazing things.  

Anyway, the camera that Gross had was one that you had to hold at your stomach level and look down to see the image you were going to take, not up at your eye like we normally think of cameras.  He could see the image but it was reversed and hard to see because it was so far from his eye.  

At first he was pretty frustrated with the results he was producing.  He felt that since he had this spectacular camera he should be able to make spectacular photos right away.  He soon came to terms with the fact that he had to learn the tools necessary to make a great photograph; composition, light, etc.  Just because he had the camera didn’t mean that he automatically knew these things.

So I have been thinking about this and can totally relate.  I know I have a pretty good camera.  It’s not a Hasselblad by any means and it’s a few years old but it has the ability to produce really nice images.  I just need to learn the tools necessary.  As I learn those tools I will be able to take great Momshots and other photographs.  

I am really excited about this.  It’s kind of funny how excited about this I am.  I seriously think about it night and day.  In fact I had a dream about getting a new lens last night.  It is totally permeating my subconscious!

I am going to go sit and read more of this book right now.  I may have a pile of laundry that needs folding but I am going to just ignore it and spend my time doing something much more fun!