April 19, 2010

I Am Not A Poser

I was going to write about how it took me three hours to clean my kitchen yesterday. Meanwhile Mike was simultaneously cleaning our bathroom, which also took him three hours. Three hours? Seriously, our home is not palatial. It's a two bed, one bath condo for Pete's sake. We should be able to clean the entire damn thing in three hours and have time for a shower and nap afterward.

But this wasn't typical cleaning. Mike was scrubbing our shower tiles with a toothbrush. I was shining our stainless steel toaster. And the crazy thing is neither of us finished our designated task at hand either. I still need to wipe down our kitchen cabinets and neither of us got to the floors. Honestly, it's enough to make me stop and consider hiring a cleaning service to come in at least once a month. But the thought of paying someone to clean my home makes me feel incredibly lazy and spoiled. Really the only thing stopping me is the yuppie guilt.

But I'm not writing about cleaning my kitchen.... err... any more.

What I want to talk about in the five minutes I am giving myself before I must get ready for bed is photos. (Surprise!) I've been thinking a lot about this wedding I'm shooting in less than a month. Holy mother of pearl I just said less than a month.

One of the things that worries me most about this wedding is posing. I admit it's not my strong suit. I've never been in a situation where I've had to direct a wedding party of people and a very small window of time. It kind of freaks me out because I won't really know if I'm any good at it until I'm right in the thick of things. Thankfully I've been in enough weddings now to know how it works.

The thing is though, I don't really like posing people. I don't like when they feel the need to stare unflinchingly at me and my lens. I think back to those elementary school photographers who used to twist my neck into uncomfortable and unnatural positions and then snap a pic. I never felt like I looked like myself in those photos. I still don't. Most people don't. But for the sake of wedding photography, I will have to. And I want my posed photos to be somewhat interesting, so I'll be doing some serious posing research (yes, there is such a thing) leading up to the wedding.

By the way, the photo above - totally not posed. And I love it more than any other photo I've taken recently.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm right there with you on the cleaning service thing. I do fine with the quick clean up once or twice a week, but the house needs a good deep cleaning once a month or so and I don't have the patience or time, but I feel like an asshole paying someone to do it for me :(

You're going to kick ass at this wedding! The fact that you've thought about it and are going to do research tells me you're going to kick ass. Also, the posed photos are for grandparents and mom's and stuff. The bride/groom are going to frame all of your unposed "moments" so don't freak too much.