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 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.
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
inspires 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 60. 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 they
showed me a collection of the flower images they
took, it was just exceptional. Barb showed me how to combine
images in Photoshop, she showed me how to create star-tracks and then
overlay it onto another image in Photoshop, she showed me how to edit
parts of the images in Photoshop so 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
technology and 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?
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