Anyone Can Shoot
Consider this an pleasant anomaly here at David Chu Photography. It's a digression from how my usual outings turn out and my intentions for the evening. What you get to see here is completely uncharacteristic of me. What you see here is not me taking pictures but what happens when you give a 9 and 12 year old a REALLY expensive SLR to take pictures with.
I'm the strongest proponent of two photographic ideals: it's not the camera, it's the photographer and secondly, "anyone can shoot", coined after watching Ratatoutille and Chef Gusto's iconic line, "anyone can cook." Now, as much as I believe in the latter ideal, I had my reservations handing my metallic baby to two overzealous kids with twinkles in their eyes over their newfound toy. As I reluctantly passed my camera to these kids, I tripled checked that the neck strap was properly in place, gulped and subsequently prayed "please don't drop it, please don't drop it. I've only had it for 6 months." Fortunately for me, they returned it in one piece, albeit with the UV filter removed. Thankfully no scratches. Can't win them all, right?
One of my photo resolutions for 2010 was to incorporate my family into my photo adventures. I initially imagined this involved more family pictures in addition to the annual Thanksgiving and Christmas shots. Though, during this Saturday evening, through the innocence of my two younger cousins, they helped me take that resolution a bit further. It's blatantly obvious but why not get the family involved? Why not let them take pictures?
In retrospect and during my review of the pictures, I'm glad I did. Yes, a great deal of the shots are out of focus, taken three feet below my eye line and they break a lot of the compositional foundation I pride my style around but you know what, that's perfectly fine. They caught a lot of keepers and they remind me of the true essence of photography and that's taking pictures for the sake of pictures. It's not about the f-stops, the shutter speed, the ISO or the position of the histogram that I habitually cling onto. It's about eternalizing one particular moment and writing the story of your life, one picture at a time. It's about inspiring those who are not readily passionate about photography to pick up a camera and go absurdly trigger happy. They've awaken a sense of poetry in photography that is absolutely beautiful, poetry that I've clouded with my rules and rigid structure. I think I've just been inspired by kids half of my age. Sweet.
And it's true, with the right tools, anyone can shoot. Enjoy!
Location: The Tram family newly remodeled house
Gear: D700, 50 1.4, SB-600
DCHU Photography
