Tonight I was able to take pictures for a great party outside of town. It was a surprise birthday party and the crowd really had a great energy of friendship. I am sharing this because while there I didn’t once have a mindset that the world was at fear of anything. I guess being around great groups will do that to others by being in their presence. Which is why I decided to share the experience. It has been 5 months since I have been able to take event images and clearly I didn’t realize how much it affected me until I realized how awesome it felt to hold my camera and take images for someone’s special day. It is very simple I understand…but the thought is really that people (no matter what they may do) are not able to do what found them at this time and these things change people.
They change people because our choices to work daily are important to every single person that makes this choice. The feeling of accomplishment is huge for the people who really love what they do as it is also to people who think they may hate their jobs: I do know the difference.
I felt it deeply tonight as I was able to do the one thing I never thought I would do in my life (taking pictures) and making portraits of amazing memories for others. It does make me happy to see other people smile just being in the presence of others they care about. I feel the many moments that are shared at times are always taken for granted, but when we have the images a year later we see these memories as cherished gifts of a documented life.
When I started taking pictures I remember hearing a phrase stated by a man – ‘An image is not as strong as music because it cannot make you cry’. This was the phrase. I am reminded annually of this phrase and try to find the soul of what is being photographed because I know it is difficult to find these images…but they do in fact exist and they are always there. I have always tried to achieve a deep level of focus to find them in crowds of the clients I photograph. The reasons are because I want them to feel excited when they see what I deliver to them as a finished product. I also know that the moments in the future are always these times that I know great soulful moments will find tears in the portraits because life will always find you in some way. It makes us realize the moments we had or have. The deep empathy of the perfect portrait that would make a person express themselves is what I always find as a goal.
I am not always reminded about this phrase… just when I edit my images. It makes me proud to be able to make moments for people who trust me to take their images. Tonight I was reminded of it again after editing these new images from the party I first started discussing above. It made me realize what people are going through with the constant waiting and fearful drivers being implemented on us by the media and our elected officials daily. I realize that some people have added worry on top of these fears. But I am asking truthfully after getting to go back to work tonight are we healthier being at home or doing what we love?
The answer is that for myself I would rather ‘Vitamin Up’ then Mask Up. Because wasting precious moments doing what we all love to do is not helping us. We need to be with the people that love us to feel any sense of accomplishment. After all this time hopefully we all should know now that many moments at work are exactly what we need. I do not think it is selfish to say so. I think it’s foolish to not live each day as if it is our last.
Have a great rest of the year from Kaptography.
- Kevin J. Ste Marie
