I did this self-portrait while standing in for my own lighting test this past Friday while shooting for a law firm that I’ve been shooting for. During the shoot, one of the attorneys commented that I had a reputation there for being very quick, as in only having them in front of my camera for a few minutes, while still managing to pull great expressions out of them and capture it in-camera.

I share this because, due to just having finished up taking college algebra this summer, and actually doing well in it, I got to thinking after they told me that…

Well, I can pretty easily get good shots of people, of all different backgrounds, that aren’t the most comfortable being photographed within five minutes of them getting in front of the camera – once I have my lighting dialed in and everything set. Sometimes I’ve managed to do it in as little as three minutes or so. This really isn’t unusual in the corporate photography business though. It’s expected that you work quickly while still delivering good results.

My point here is that this past summer in college algebra, my average for getting problems solved was about seven minutes per problem. Sometimes I’d do them quicker, and sometimes it’d take much more time. As much as an hour or two in some cases – on s single problem – trying to figure out what I was missing that was resulting in my answer coming out wrong.

Well. I’m pretty weird because I often make very unlikely comparisons. But, in this case, I’m glad this one came to mind. Because it gave me even more appreciation for why I was there that day. I love that I feel at ease enough with what I’m doing as a photographer that it helps put whoever I’m photographing at ease. And it definitely feels good feeling like you’re doing something that God put you on earth to do.

On the flip side of this, when it comes to math the exact opposite is true. I struggle with it. So much so that I’m pretty sure my tutors, professors, classmates, family, and friends can feel the negative energy radiating from me while having to do it.

There is definitely something to be said for finding what you’re good at and then making the most of it in life. Your attitude regarding what you do makes a huge difference in how well you are able to do it. No doubt that – part of why math is so tough for me is that – I have a horrible attitude about it. But. I’m willing to endure it to reach my goal, which is becoming a nurse while still being a working commercial photographer once out of school.

I just hope that once I do reach that goal, that I’m able to discover a field of nursing that I feel at ease doing as I am a corporate portrait photographer so that hopefully that ease will be felt by my patients and those that care about them. I just hope I’m doing the right thing, and that it becomes very clear to me that I have once that time arrives. Having to somewhat give up one calling to pursue another isn’t what I’d call a good time, y’all. But, I’m so lucky to be able to.

So, this shot is me feeling about has happy and relaxed as I get due to being surrounded by photography gear, and doing something I’m actually good at, rather than calculators, math notes, and working with toxic combinations of letters and numbers that I’ve been assigned to do.

The moral of all this is, don’t ever hire me to do something that requires I do a lot of complicated math for you, but, if you need somebody to get great portraits of your employee’s, quickly, employees that you bill out at several hundred dollars an hour to your clients. Well. I’m your guy for that.