Things I learned while trying to be all photographer-like

Recently I was given the hugely, huge responsibility of taking pictures of a wonderful, beautiful family that is family of my family, if that makes any sense.
Basically it means I love them dearly and consider them family.Mush.  I know.
But anyways, this family consists of two adult children and their parents.
No pets.
No babies.
Just grown ups.
Add in me and my camera.

 

Ugh, the stress was enough to produce multiple zits on my chin.

And the weather was dark, rainy and just all around craptastic.

Bad weather+adults only+inexperienced photographer=poop soup cramps

But anyways, I have never been one to run away from a stressful situation.  I suck it up, take a few Tums and go with the flow.
Pun intended.
After looking back on my time spent pretending to be a photographer, I took a few moments to just sit and digest what I learned from the experience.

*I know nothing about ISO, aperture, f-stop crap and I am not sure I want to for fast paced sessions.  I prefer to capture spontaneous moments rather than playing around with the many settings on the camera.

*Maybe once I understand all of the above stuff, my photos will be much nicer
*I prefer natural, outdoor lighting.  Probably because I dont understand all of the above crap

*Sometimes the little things make a photo so much more than just a photo. Sure, it is nice to have the family shot, but I enjoy thinking out of the box and capturing other things about people that make them stand out. I
must work on this.

 
*Capturing a spontaneous moment is so difficult with self conscious adults!! It is easy to capture the parents cuddling with their new baby or newlyweds who still love eachother (haha), or even animals chasing their tail, but finding the magic trick to get adults to let loose is a skill I have yet to succeed at. Probably because I totally understand the "uncomfortableness" of the situation.
*I need to develop a list of desirable locations for the perfect session. I am a big believer in making anything work but would love to give families the option of places to go. That way I can also have photo ideas in my head before arriving at the destination.
*I like people. Seeing them smile gives me the warm, fuzzy feelings inside
*I want a new lens. Maybe even a flash thing that goes on top of my camera. Now that would be cool. Except then I would have to learn about more camera crap and all that stuff just overwhelms me which causes more chin zits.Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

*I know some pretty good looking people

*I must learn how to make a watermark for my photos


*And then I MUST get more practice.

Thank you to this beautiful family for trusting me....again.