except they won’t really understand it, unless they happen to like to shoot guns and cameras. my next lesson from college came from a photography class...
let me just start by suggesting that EVERYONE should take a photography class. the skills that i learned in that class i use all of the time to document my family and life and i am so glad that i ventured into the visual and creative arts arena by taking this class. i LOVE taking pictures and i LOVE LOVE LOVE taking good pictures. in this photography class, i learned how to take good pictures and after i tell you the secret, i guess you really won’t need to take photography class, so ignore the previous caveat about EVERYONE taking photography class and change it to EVERYONE should read my blog (and send me $$$ to see my show at the theater of LEA).
here is the big secret and life lesson from furman photography class 101.
KEEP SHOOTING...
in class the professor showed us some great pictures from LIFE magazine and told us how many shots each photographer had taken that month. it was in the hundreds and they had gotten only that ONE photograph published. she said that if we got ONE good shot out of a roll of film (24 pictures for those of you who never shot film), then we were doing much better than those professionals. “if you don’t take good pictures, keep shooting. you will get a good one eventually”, was her advice to us novice photographers. and she was right (and thank goodness for my digital camera and my 1000 shots per card).
so i keep shooting, i keep taking pictures. i keep writing. i keep reading. i keep getting up when the alarm goes off really early in the morning. i keep telling my 12 year old son to brush his teeth every morning and every night. i keep telling my teenage daughter that she is so beautiful. i keep telling my 9 year old that she is my baby. i keep telling my husband that i love him more today that when i married him almost 19 years ago. i keep telling myself that God loves me and that He forgives my 999 bad shots everyday and that He smiles at the 1 time i get it right.
because of my furman education i know that i have to CHOOSE whether this all is a comedy or a tragedy and i know to keep shooting. i hope to leave you laughing. i hope to leave behind one good shot to all of the bad ones. and i hope that you learned some lessons in college or will learn some lessons in college. thank you furman and go paladins...
i hope my dad thinks my very expensive education was worth the $$$$$$$$$$$$$ for those three things learned in college and the wonderful friends that i made, oh, and one more thing.... oh yeah, the guy that i married. i got him from furman too.
and furman was where i first worked on a macintosh computer and it was so much more intuitive than working on a pc. so when i bought my first computer (let me say for honesty’s sake... when my dad bought my first computer), it was an apple 2gs. with less memory than a first generation ipod. and a nice dot matrix printer. aah, those were the days. no blogs to keep up with...
to see some examples of my photography AND my roommate dina’s daughter, jordan’s photography, you can go to 14or40. jordan and i take a photo every weekday and upload them to the site. you have to guess whether jordan or i took the photo. the next day, the answer is given. sometimes we keep score and the winner gets a prize.
with this post, i am finished with college and also finished with my single days... in the history of lea, i was about to turn 21 and about to marry adam and start my first teaching job in an inner city school in charleston, s.c....
stay tuned... 20 more years of my life and 23 more women to go...
