person + money + camera ≠ photographer.

Taking pictures is easy. Most people can do it–and they do it quite well. They take pictures at a family reunion or of their newborn grandchild or of their hotrod car or whatever. This kind of photography is referred to as “document photography,” where the person with the camera is taking pictures for the sole purpose of documenting an event or circumstance.

And since everyone can do it, then it must be easy, right? Wrong. Herein lies some misconceptions about the world of photography.

1. If I buy this expensive camera, I can take professional pictures.

I hear this at least once a week. Many believe that if they pay lots of money for a professional-grade camera, they can take professional pictures. Unfortunately, the higher the price of one’s photography equipment does not relate to an increased ability to take professional-grade pictures. That’s not to say that you have to have a professional camera in order to take professional pictures. I have seen photographers shoot weddings with point and shoot cameras like the Fuji X100 (ahem Neil van Niekerk). I’ve seen some pretty amazing macro photography with the Olympus XZ-1.

What I’m getting at is this: It takes a little more than a fancy camera to take quality pictures. It takes knowledge. And I’m not talking about how-to-use-a-camera knowledge. I’m talking composition. I’m talking lighting. I’m talking posing. I’m talking aperture. I’m talking shutter speed. And so on.

2. I take really great pictures–I don’t need to move beyond auto mode.

Let’s be clear here: you’re luck is about to run out. There’s nothing more irritating than someone coming in to ask a question about their Canon 5D Mark II and not understanding aperture because they’ve never taken their $2500 full-frame camera off auto mode. On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with someone wanting to take better pictures and realizing that a point and shoot may not suit their photography needs. If budding photographers approached the art knowing that they don’t know everything, we’d have a happier world. Too bad politics didn’t work that way. But I digress…

3. I need the fastest camera so that I can take 700 pictures to ensure I get the best shot.

I agree that having a camera with a faster frame rate is truly a wonderful thing. But a faster frame rate doesn’t equate to stopping action. Let’s consider a lens with wider aperture abilities. Let’s consider knowing how to frame a moving subject to make the shot active and not passive. Let’s consider knowledge of One Shot vs. AI Focus vs. AI Servo in action photography.

Let’s consider the fact that you’ll have to edit all 700 of those pictures in post. Ew.

————————————–

Photography, like creative writing, is an art. It’s not something that the majority of people can just “do” from the start. It takes initiative, composition, knowledge of lighting, and so much more.

Even you can do this. Call your local camera store and learn about the classes they offer. And take one or two. Or all of them. Just don’t up and quit your full-time job to be a photographer.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all.

nothing is free, except this advice.

So I’ve been in the retail world for almost three months now. I quit my job as a journalism adviser (taught for 13 years) to sell cameras and maintain Facebook and Twitter for a local family-owned camera store. I like it. A lot.

Except when complete strangers (and even people I know) ask me to give them a deal.

I know that the economy is supposedly “bad” right now. I know we’re in a recession. I know big box companies offer lower prices and 36-month interest free financing and that their employees could care less about what they’re selling and more about what kind of paycheck your purchase brings them. I know that shady online retailers are offering ridiculous discounts on photography equipment with promises of free shipping and cheap (in more ways than just the cost) memory cards. Oh, yeah–and you don’t have to pay sales tax.

Which is completely and totally false.

On your taxes, there’s this section that asks you to report all the online purchases you made during the fiscal year…so that you can pay sales tax on it. How many out there are honest on that portion of their taxes? I am. But I’m willing to wager my meager commissioned salary that many people don’t. I’m not typically a betting person, but whenever I hear a potential customer use the “I don’t have to pay sales tax” angle of argument, I remind them that they have to report it on their taxes at the end of the year. And I always get the response, “What? I do?” So now I’m a betting person.

Until a customer decides to buy locally. Hooray!

Can you throw in that $50 memory card for free since I’m not buying from *insert big box store name here*?

You know what–that sounds like a great deal! What do you do for a living?

Oh, well I work for *insert prominent bank name here*.

That’s awesome! We bank there. So can you possibly remove that new restriction from all personal accounts that says I have to carry a minimum balance of $1,000 or you’ll fine me $10 each month?

Hehehe…no. I can’t do that.

Why not?

I just can’t. I’d get fired.

Then why are you asking me to give you a free memory card?

Giving deals is all fine and dandy. When the person you’re buying from offers you the deal first. But let’s get beyond the bitterness here. There’s something wrong with society in that we think it’s acceptable to ask the middle man for a deal at said middle man’s expense.

But I digress.

I know that other people offer better deals. I mean, 36 months interest free? I get it. But I also see it as capitalism’s way of forcing society to be compulsive in its purchasing decisions. Do people really think, Whoa. I can totally buy this camera/lighting equipment/fast lens/etc. at $1500 and pay it off over 3 years? And when that same company offers 24 month financing in 4 months, they’ll do it again. And again. And again.

Because they can. Not because they need it. But stick the word “free” in any deal, and consumers are raising eyebrows and stopping mid-drink of their Starbucks $5 venti latte.

But nothing is free, except this advice: don’t let capitalism make you impulsive.

And be nice to your friends.

happening.

I try to not let things get me down, but I feel it happening. It’s usually easy for me to pull myself back up, but right now I can’t see anything to grab onto. I just want to go to the dark spaces. And close my eyes.

And feel.

I see it as a photograph–all steel black with a hint of bright to lessen the pain.

I’m going to frame it and stuff it in a drawer–bottom left with all the other things I enjoy but can’t use right this minute.

Because when this sadness is done, I’ll put that photograph away and continue to be.

Missing: words.

I think of this blog often. But every time I sit down to write, the words disappear. There are no ideas. There are no words.

Just the air that I breathe.

In the midst of a job change, I don’t even have anything exciting to say. I love my new job, although I’m making half of what I did teaching (oh, the irony, right?) I’m seeing 3 great concerts this summer. I’m training for my third half marathon and my first cycling event. My husband got an exciting new job within the Nebraska Medical Center, where he’s worked for the last 12 years. Our daughter Mallory is starting kindergarten this fall, and we just celebrated her transplanted kidney’s third birthday.

But once again, I feel like I’m searching for something. And until I find whatever it is I’m searching for, there are no words.

If found, please return.

Nebraska legislation will ruin education.

I will comment more tonight, but the following is an email I just received from our state education association in regards to Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman’s recent support of Wisconsin-style legislation. Please: make a call, send an email, write a blog post. This doesn’t only hurt our teachers, but the students as well.

URGENT: Call Your Senator, the Governor’s Office

The chamber of commerce has engaged in a big push today to enact its proposal to cut teacher pay by 15 percent.

Chamber officials held a news conference supporting their plan, and have secured the governor’s support.

Contact your senator and the governor today, and tell them to oppose the chamber plan on the CIR.

Here are the details:

The State, Omaha, and Nebraska chambers of commerce have collectively produced a last minute proposal that would impose Wisconsin-style legislation on Nebraska’s teachers, school employees, and employees in other public employer groups (e.g., fire, police, etc.). The chamber plan is backed by the governor, who said this morning that he would veto the current version of the bill to rework the Commission on Industrial Relations. The chamber’s proposal would:

· force the CIR to cut the average pay of teachers by 15 percent.
· allow the your school district to change the type and/or structure of any benefit provided without being negotiated.
· reduce teacher compensation to an hourly rate.
· allow the CIR to create a new salary schedule, rather than have it be negotiated.
· limit negotiations to wages and benefits only.
· allow the your school district to unilaterally deviate from the contract and to offer merit pay.

The chamber’s proposal would gut the negotiations process and void the gains in collective bargaining made over the past 44 years.

Contact your senator and the Governor immediately:
Senator List: http://nsea.org/policy/pdfs/Senators_and_Email_2011.pdf or Capitol switchboard (402) 471-2311

Governor Heineman: dave.heineman@nebraska.gov or 402-471-2244

Let them know that Nebraska doesn’t need Wisconsin-style legislation. The problem isn’t with the CIR. The problem is with the Chamber of Commerce proposal, because the CIR is rarely used by schools. Nebraska average salary for teachers ranks 43rd. The chamber’s proposal would push the state average to a near-bottom-of-the-barrel 49th.

Support LB397, the common-sense solution offered by Sens. Dennis Utter and Steve Lathrop – 10 months in the making. That compromise makes fair and reasonable changes to the CIR.

Movin’ out.

Sometimes you have to quit a job to open up the doors to others.

My last day as a high school journalism teacher will be May 25, which makes May 26 the first day of a new career. A career I’m not sure of yet.

I’ve asked some friends about what to do. I’m opening my mind to opportunities I had never thought of entertaining even six years ago. I have taken risks in social media and began following people I don’t know–and letting them follow me in return. And one of those tweeps–someone I still haven’t met in person–retweeted a tweet about a marketing internship. So I applied.

And today I had an interview that was awesome. I met a young entrepreneur that, surprisingly, I had much in common with. We chatted about me, his company, teaching, Big Omaha, marketing–all things relating to this position. And then he asked that one question that keeps creeping up on me:

Do you blog?

Oh boy. I do. But I’m not consistent. And I admitted to it. I was even so lame that when I tried to give him the web addy…I remembered it incorrectly. I told him wordpress.org and not .com. It could very well be the detriment to me getting the job. But I was honest with him and said that it was either .org or .com and that I felt ridiculous for not remembering it…and then I recovered by explaining the intricacies of a teaching career.

You know, the 90-hour work weeks. The calling of parents. The grading. The planning. The teaching. Repeat. And he took a drink of his DMD and sighed. “I knew teachers worked a lot, but I just didn’t really think about it.”

So here I am. Blogging. I should be reading the 16 pages of newspaper that needs to come out on April 29.

In a roundabout way, this internship could be the perfect thing for me. Feeling comfortable in my skin, being me, people accepting me in my favorite pair of blue jeans and knowing I like to sleep in until 7 and go to bed at midnight after watching Star Wars I-VI in order. Answering to the people I work with and for, instead of them and their parents and the media and people I don’t even know or will never meet.

I didn’t pretend to have a marketing degree, but thankfully he understood and said that I intrigued him. I mean, a teacher applying for a job college students usually apply for. What gives?

Get me out of teaching. That’s what gives.

So I’m blogging. I’m happy to say I even have one in the works that’s not about me or teaching or education. It’s about all things Apple.

So amp up your RSS feeds, followers. I’m entering the blogosphere.

have what i want.

I’ve lived my entire life not really knowing what I want to be when I grow up.

And I’m a grownup.

I love photography. I love graphic design. I love journalism. I love social media. But I am super scared to jump out of the teaching field and into freelancing. I’ve told my friend Amanda over at http://amandahackwith.com/ I want to do what she does, and she gives me ideas to work with but I can never do them because I’m so busy teaching and too exhausted at night to sit down and do something for me. I chatted with Julie (http://readingwriting.posterous.com) and Susan (http://www.snbaird.com/) today over coffee at Panera about the ups and downs of teaching and freelancing. And the uncertainty of freelancing sounds so much better than the certainty of teaching that I do now.

I love the students I teach, don’t get me wrong. But I also love my husband and my wonderful daughter. And it’s strange to say it, but I love me, too. But the life of a teacher doesn’t always allow for all of these things to co-exist.

This is how I see it:

Is it possible to have what I want? I’d say yes.

Except that would require me to believe in myself.

Merit-based pay won’t make children test better.

Last week there was a posting on the Des Moines Register’s blog about Iowa’s discussion of dumping their state curriculum and revamping it to include “relevant tests,” among other ideas. I wrote the following in response (the original is here: http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/01/03/iowa-core-would-be-dropped-under-house-republicans-plan/#comments ), but it was literally days before the Register approved my login name.

Sigh.

So here it is:

Is teaching to a test what politicians want for their children’s education? Apparently.

Ask any child what makes a good teacher, and that child will say it’s the teachers who make them think, have interesting viewpoints, care about their students as humans rather than test scores, and have high expectations.

Ask any teacher what makes a good teacher, and that teacher will say it’s the teachers who get all their students involved, who make education relevant, and continue to rework their lessons in an ever-changing world.

And the only test for that is how our children’s futures turn out.

Paying teachers more money for how well their students do on poorly-written, irrelevant tests isn’t going to make teachers teach better or students learn more. And putting politicians with no teaching experience in charge of education will only drive us further down the spiral of failure.

We need to get in the classrooms and find out what’s working. We need to stop listening to theorists who “think” their ideas are the answer. We need to put people in charge of education who know the field and can reasonably see what’s wrong. We need to have a conversation about what to do next.

We need to collaborate.

We need to act.

Newsworthy or gossipworthy?

This past Wednesday, a local high school senior killed an assistant principal and seriously wounded the principal before taking his own life.

I first learned about it from @WOWT6News on Twitter. I heard about it on NPR. I guess it was a top story that night on ABC news. It was breaking news here in Omaha, Neb., where the shooting occurred. My high school newspaper students talked at length about it. I read some amazing articles in the Omaha World Herald that shed light on perspectives that tug at the heart of journalism.

And then John Boehner cried. A new Congress had taken over, as in years before. New blame was being placed in the BP oil spill. Obama was wearing flip-flops while vacationing in Hawaii.

And I’m left wondering if big media has forgotten its journalism ethics.

Seek truth and report it. Minimize harm. Act independently. Be accountable.

Has our country become so immune–if that’s the right word–to school shootings that a flip-flop wearing president deserves more airtime than the children who will be wearing those flip-flops in 30 years? Teens will stay up late watching Jersey Shore instead of studying for their regular English test because gossip is more important than reality. But who is noticing? These children are crying for help. And we continue to place blame on others for our own faults.

The schools are failing. I’m a teacher–I know it. But no one is in charge who really understands what’s so wrong about it. The kids know it–and they’re rebelling against the teachers, the principals, their parents, each other–because that’s the closest thing they have to lay blame upon. And paying teachers–like me–more money for how well their students perform on tests is going to fix it.

Yeah, right.

The editor-in-chief of my newspaper staff–a senior in high school–sees these problems. And she feels so strongly about it that she wrote a speech to deliver to our district’s school board tomorrow night. I’ve proofread her speech, asked her questions about it, and tried not to insert my own heavy-laden opinions on her piece of art. But it’s so hard.

But kids care. They want a fair education. They know when they are being duped. And they’re tired of it. They want the good teachers to keep teaching. They want what they are entitled to: a free, advanced education in a safe environment. And we, the teachers, should be entitled to provide that for them.

The teachers–we’re in the trenches. Just let us do our job. We want the same voice our students do.

And that’s what is newsworthy.

New year, or something like that.

Resolutions.

We are all just plenipotentiaries who resolve ourselves into thinking we can make change. Change within ourselves, within others, within the world.

We resolve–the verb. We determine we will follow some course of action to initiate change. But seldom do we carry out the noun–resolution.

Why?

Is it because we want these resolutions so badly that we set ourselves up for failure? Is it because we aren’t realistic? Is it because we don’t have the willpower, the initiative?

Is it because we’re human?

It could be all these things. But it might be none of them.

Perhaps–instead of resolving to work out more, make better food choices, to blog more, to not resolve to do anything–we should just resolve to let life happen. Not to anticipate it, but to welcome the unexpected and let life guide us.

After all, we can take control by letting go of the reigns.

This year, I resolve to let life happen.

What will you do?