| I had the opportunity this weekend to photograph a young lady's senior portraits. Her German exchange student house guest came along. The German girl, Lina, was very interested in photography and curious to know about all I was doing during the session….lighting, lens, f/stop, framing, etc. As I was packing up gear at the end of the session Lina asked where I learned to photograph, what school I had gone to. When I told her I learned it all through reading photography magazines and books she was completely shocked. She said, "NO school?" I said, "No school." My own experience has proven that deep passion combined with diligence, the ability to read combined with access to quality materials allows a person to do many, many things. I started photography when I was eleven years old and knew I was hooked for life by the time I was fifteen. My parents encouraged and supported me so very much in those early years with magazine subscriptions and book purchases, film and camera gifts that to this day warm my heart to think about. I frequently wonder how different it would have been for me had the internet existed back then when I was really working to get photography figured out (late 70s- early 80s)…the ready access to information could have lowered my learning curve greatly. Or it could have completely overwhelmed me to the point of being unable to focus and absorb. The beauty of my life now is that when I find a particular subject I'm interested in I take a class which is usually a very targeted intensive…I've done a master black and white printing class in Santa Fe with George DeWolfe, a studio lighting class with Marc Hauser, a One Light flash class with Zack Arias, and a life photography passion class (this class was so impressive it can't be pigeonholed into a category) in Santa Fe with Keith Carter. Each of them continue to impact my work on an ongoing basis. Lea your kids . my camera . we'll click www.leamurphy.com On Sep 10, 2013, at 9:33 AM, Andrew Davidhazy wrote:
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