Then vs. Now- the journey of your Batavia, N.Y. photographer

Hey, hey! It’s time to get vulnerable for a second.

As a professional photographer I always get asked the question, “how long have you been a photographer?”. I believe the actual question should be “how long have you known how to use your camera properly” because my love of photography and actually understanding photography are two different things. You can have both of these, but if you don’t have both of them together, there is no room for improvement in your craft. This had me thinking that it would be fun to do a then vs now, and not the typical “then vs. now” where people share their 2 years ago of knowing what I was doing with my camera vs now, but a true before of when I thought I knew what I was doing, so I dug waaaaay deep into my archives and found this image that I remember being so proud of.

So proud of for two reasons: This is my first born son so naturally I was just so proud to be his mom. I remember seeing new Moms with their new baby out in public and they always had a blanket over them. Not me! I wanted to show off this sweet little nugget of mine. Of course he was covered when we were outside, but the minute we were in a building I couldn’t wait to rip that blanket so everyone could see his sweet face, and two, I thought it was a really great shot; he is smiling a little bit, the lighting is sufficient, and I was able to pose him in a basket and still get a good shot of his face. Thing is, this photo is when I was shooting with my “fancy camera” on Auto. I had not a clue what settings were. I was that person that thought because I had a fancy camera that it (my camera) would know what I wanted to achieve and do it. I realize now that my camera on auto meant that it would take an overall reading of the the entire scene and choose the setting based on that. I remember getting so frustrated when the shutter wouldn’t go as fast as I needed it to or when my highlights were blown out and the entire scene looked grey. I also remember when my camera finally got that good shot. Getting that one good shot made me feel like I was finally figuring it out, but then all of those other issues would creep back around again. It was vicious cycle, and I’m SO happy to not be there anymore. I mean, I’d love it if my 6’, 9th grader was tiny again, but…..

P.S. I attached a photo of him at the bottom, so it’s a good “then vs. now” of him.

It wasn’t until I had my second son that I realized I had zero clue what I was doing. I figured this out because I wanted to improve my skills and get better shots, but I wasn’t sure what exactly I need to do to get them. The world of photography opened up for me when I started with a simple question asking about how to prevent blur in my action shots. That one little search got the ball rolling. I was learning about all of these settings and shooting like a mad person because I wanted to improve my skill. I was hungry for content. I wanted to be able to go into a session and know exactly what I was doing. I wanted to look at a scene and know straight away what I had to do to nail focus, exposure, and still remain creative. I didn’t want to choke. I wanted to be able to troubleshoot on the spot, but I couldn’t do that without knowing how my camera worked. If you have worked with me you may have experience a time where I have had to troubleshoot my camera, and while I still (silently) have a moment of panic, I remind myself to calm down and go down the list of things that could be the problem based on the issue I’m having.

Let’s move past the technical side of photography (settings) and move to composition/posing. As you can see here, the first shot is not really a flattering angle (even for a baby where it’s next to impossible to make look bad), because emphasizing the nostrils is never a good idea. Now, if you look at the 2nd baby, I learned to shoot at another angle and it is a huge improvement from the first. Next, styling: We can all agree that the styling of the first image is on-point. LOL! But, let’s be real…I’ve definitely come along way, and I realized that props can make or break an image. In this case, those eggs + Easter grass + hand towel (?) totally broke this image. Let’s all just focus on that sweet face.

This is a gentle reminder that we all start somewhere. We all have beginnings that we look back on and feel embarrassed about. It’s important to ask yourself, where would you be without that beginning. This feels like those stories talking about having a dream and $100 in your pocket. Who knows, I was 23 and a server when I took this shot. I probably only had $100 in my pocket. Hahaha!

Here’s to continuing my learning journey as a Family Photographer in Batavia, N.Y.

I never want to be the best at what I do. I’m always thirsty for learning new techniques- as any person should be in their field of work, because if you’re not learning new things in your craft, what are you even doing? I believe in this so much that I decided to write more. I know I’m not the best writer, but I’m really hoping that if I just keep on clicking on this keyboard that I can create quality content with a twist of humor. If there’s anything you’d like for me to write about pertaining to photography, please drop it in the comments below. I look forward to reading them!

Signing off,

Marie Bohn