Searching for the Perfect Shot...

It turned out to be a rather stressful and exhausting long weekend as I searched tirelessly for the perfect weather condition to photograph clouds and sunsets in downtown Chicago.  Obviously, I did not get what I was searching for because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time!!! 

However, thankfully, I got a few acceptable images of the Buckingham Fountain. 

The Inspiration

Today is the last day of my photography class.  For those of you who know my work schedule and my general attitude toward classrooms and pure academics, you know that I've made a huge commitment to sign up for this class.  I literally spent 6+ hours each Saturday for the past 16 weeks to complete this course.  On top of the classes, I had to write 3 unit paper and do a final project involving 17-20 images.

Yes, I learned HDR, I learned Hyperfocal Focusing, I learned Composition, I learned Photo Impressionism, I learned Flash Photography techniques, I learned Wildlife Photography and Macro Photography and much, much more.  Am I a better photographer today than I was 16 weeks ago?  I don't know.  Will I become a much better photographer because of this class?  I don't know.  At this point, I don't believe those are the important questions to answer.  However, I do know that through this class, through the people I meet in this class, I have learned so much more than just the Photography.  It's the people I encounter, their passion, devotion, and their ability to learn and to live a fulfilled life that inspire me the most.

For the last 3 sessions, I had two instructors who taught me Macro Photography.  Barb is 84 this year, Ruth is approaching 80.  They are two of the most prominent macro photographers in the Chicago area.  Barb did not start learning photography until after her retirement.  At age 60, when she signed up for her first photography class, the professor told her that she should take a high school photography class to learn how to load films into the camera...  and so she did.

Twenty-four year later, today, when she showed me a collection of the flower images she took, I was speechless – the photographs are just exceptional.  She showed me how to combine images in Photoshop, she showed me how to create star-tracks in the sky and then overlay it onto another image in Photoshop, she showed me how to edit parts of the image in Photoshop so that the entire photograph can be sharp throughout... She told me she attended Tony Sweet's photography workshop last year at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at age 83, she told me she couldn't wait to read Tony Sweet's book about iPhone Photography, she told me she is not buying iPhone4 right now because she has solid reasons to believe that iPhone5 has a much better camera...  

Okay, just close your eyes and imagine for a minute -- what would it take for an 84 year-old lady to keep up with all the camera technology and photography software applications and the future?!  How could she do it?  Well, it is her unending curiosity and innate desire to learn, isn't it?  Somewhere down the road, she must also have the courage to start a whole new career at age 60 and be willing to do whatever it takes to become one of the best in that field.  Just think about it -- if this is not inspiring, what is?