Inspired

Last Wednesday, as we were waiting patiently for the Special Olympics torch run to begin I met another photographer. He asked me a few questions about my camera and I was immediately nervous. I simply don't know that much about photography and I always feel like a "poser" who will be revealed as such if you scratch at all below the surface. I rarely, if ever, take my camera off the automatic settings, only occasionally do I manually focus the lens and I wouldn't know an ISO setting if I stepped on it in the parking lot.

It's not that I don't want to know. . .it's that I'm not good at learning those kinds of things by reading. I need an actual human being to show me why something works or why it doesn't. Theory is useless in the way my brain processes information. I'm all about practicality.

But, I digress. Back to the real photographer.

He was so kind. And unassuming. And non-threatening. We laughed and talked and he gave me his card and encouraged me to look at his portfolio online. The more we talked – the torch run was about 35 minutes behind schedule – the more we had in common. He's from Kentucky originally and told me that he and his wife were about to leave for Georgetown (my hometown!) for a week to housesit for their daughter! He posts one picture online every day (and has for the last three years straight!) and he told me to watch because there would soon be shots from the small town close to my heart.

The more we talked the more at ease I felt and the more questions about photography I began to ask. He was gracious and generous with his wisdom. And he didn't make me feel like an idiot for asking, always a plus!

The upside of all this is that he has really inspired me to try to learn more about photography. Because of our chance encounter last week I made a trek to the park at dawn yesterday. I think I have an "eye" for composition and color. Now I just need to learn about the vast "science" behind the art.

Perhaps it should all begin by making friends with that ISO setting??

{Frank Wilson, photographer (and exceptionally nice human being!) • view his portfolio here}

stay tuned tomorrow. i asked if he would mind photographing something in Georgetown for me and he found it. . . in spite of my lack of actual address and crummy descriptions!