It’s been a little over four years since I began my journey into photography. A Journey that I didn’t step out to take on my own accord. It was a push from my sister who actually ignited the spark. Come to think of it. It is my sister who is responsible for possibly my two biggest passions of present day. If it wasn’t for her I probably wouldn’t have become so addicted to this dance of Kizomba that I equally love just as much. Two passions that have literally shaped the course of my life in a direction I would have never imagined for myself 5 years ago. Allow me to explain
See, Prior to 2014 I was not much of a dancer at all. In all my youth I performed a group choreography in the 5th grade one time. A choreography to which I still remember bits and pieces of to this day and of which the song remains a classic favorite for this reason. It was to Dirtsman “Hot this year” the classic reggae tune of the early 90’s. My next attempt at dancing wouldn’t come for another 10 years or so when I tried my hand at salsa dancing in an attempt to date a girl who was also interested in learning. I picked up pretty quick but with the lady being the sole motivation to learn, it quickly faded when the relationship didn’t go as anticipated.
Despite not being much of a dancer I still genuinely enjoyed going to parties and would watch enviously as guys were able to move in sync with female on the dance floor and control the dance in such an enjoyable way. There was a magic that would take place when watching that which created a yearning to be able to do the same. One day while sitting at home browsing YouTube, I came across the following video.
I must have replayed this video at least 10 times. Each time even more fascinated than the last at how the leader was able to control the movement of the follows waist in the way that he was. In that moment I said out loud….. “I need to learn how to make a woman move her body like THAT”. Later that day I showed the video to my sister. She mistakenly identified the style of dance stating “I think that is Kizomba. Hearing all I needed to hear I went right to search and typed in Kizomba and found a video of Albir moving Sara in a very similar way… That was it. I was hooked. Thank you sis….You officially sparked the first flame of passion.
Fast forward three years later, April 2017. My niece is preparing for her Holy Communion. An occasion which is highly celebrated in the Haitian community. It’s an opportunity for the entire family and close friends to gather in celebration at such a monumental stepping stone in the catholic religion. A moment that my sister felt needed to be captured. She was hoping to hire a photographer who would be able to take photos of the ceremony at the church for a couple of hours followed by more photos of the reception that evening for about 4 hours. Little did she know that in addition to the 6 hours she was requesting the photographers were also adding to their quotes; travel time, gas, and post production hours. Every photographers quote STARTED at $800 and went up from there.
Unaware of what the world of professional photography consist of my sister could not believe the outrageous prices she was being quoted. “It doesn’t make any sense, all they doing is pressing a button! IF photographers are out here charging $800 just to take pictures for 6 hours, then you need to learn how to do this so you can charge $600 and take all their business” was her proclamation to me. At the time I too didn’t understand the pricing logic but I definitely agreed with everything she was saying.
“I don’t have the right equipment though to be go into professional photography. I would have to buy a decent camera first” was my retort
“Well how much does a camera cost? Can you buy one for $800? I will GIVE YOU the $800 instead of a stranger….learn how to use it and start killing it bro”
How could I argue against that? I started doing some research and when I thought about all the things I wanted to do creatively (all revolving around video editing) I decided on the Lumix G7. A great budget but yet high quality video and photo camera with the kit lens. Then in further studies learned that every great photographer MUST have a “nifty fifty”. I also picked up a manual focus 50mm 2.0 Yungnuo lens. I had 4 days to learn how to use it and was thrown into the lion’s den with my first “professional event shoot”. I wasn’t able to learn enough about the exposure triangle or how to operate the camera in manual mode in only four days but I did what I could with what I could remember.
When I look back at them now I can see how far I have progressed. Capturing moments has now become an added passion. I have created a niche in the style of photography that I want to put out. Emotion, Joy, laughter, a photo that tells a story that you must look at for more than 3 seconds in order to complete. This has become my subconscious mission each time I shoot an event. And again I have my sister to thank for this. I never said I want to be a photographer but now I find myself saying “man if only I would have stuck with this after taking that photography elective in college”.
……….Better late than never.
In four years’ time I have entrenched myself into the world of YouTube university. I have probably watched over 500 hundred videos studying various elements of portrait and event photography. I eventually invested in myself and enrolled in courses from some very notable photographers Like Joel Grimes, Tomayia Colvin & Prince Meyson to name a few. I have invested Thousands into professional photography and lighting equipment and I am constantly pushing my limits to make my latest event photos better than the last. The same goes for the portraits I take. I am working to understand how to use light to my advantage. I went from needing lightroom presets to mask my deficiencies to now striving to get my photo as perfect as possible straight out of the camera. I study other photographer’s photos trying to decipher what lighting techniques that they use and how I can apply them to my own repertoire.
The reality is this new passion has kind of taken over my previous passion. I am working to regain a sense of balance and consistency between the two genres. And by combining the best of both worlds I get to do just that! Dance photography!
I'll go into that in a later blog…
Oh and on that note………..Thank you Sis!!!!!!!