A line from Roger Ebert’s recently released “Life Itself” really jumped out at me.  In looking back on his life and career of over 40 years as a film critic for the Chicago Sun Times, Ebert writes:

“I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do.  To make others less happy is a crime.  To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts.  We must try to contribute joy to the world.  That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances.  We must try.  I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.”

You don’t have to look very far or hard to find a lot of unhappiness amongst a group of wedding and portriat photographers.  Whether it’s complaining about the client who didn’t book you, the bride’s mother who wanted too many formals, or the other photographer who you think undercut you on price, there’s no shortage of reasons to make yourselves unhappy with the current state of the industry.  I’ll admit that I sometimes fall prey to these same feelings, and have been known to rant and rave on a variety of topics at photographer gatherings.  But we can learn a lot from Ebert’s observation, which took him a lifetime and over 300 (ebook) pages to realize.

Ebert obviously places a lot of value and emphasis on contributing a certain amount of joy and happiness to the world, and that the pursuit of these contributions to the world are what ultimately results in happiness and satisfaction for ones self.  Let’s face it, we’re in the business of making people happy!  If for no other reason, wedding photographers should be the most fulfilled, satisfied, and complete people on the face of the earth.  But sadly, you don’t have to go far on a photography forum, local get-together, or twitter feed to find frustrated and unhappy photographers.

For me this is the busiest part of the the year/season for me.  I always have the most weddings to shoot in the fall (they’re actually more popular than summer weddings now), family portraits are starting to kick in because everyone wants fall colors, and the summer brides are now sending in album design revisions.  It’s easy to get frazzled and fall into a mode of perpetual complaining.  But I’m trying to remind myself to take a step back, to take a look at the larger picture, and look at what I do, for what it really is.  An opportunity to truly put a smile on someone’s face, regardless whether it’s framed through a camera’s viewfinder.

If you’re interested in David DuChemin’s book “Vision and Voice, Refining Your Vision In Adobe Photoshop Lightroom” just click HERE

Untitled from Jay Crihfield on Vimeo.

A week or so ago, I posted a Poll asking readers to vote on what they think the light source of the rim or kicker light was from the portrait of Deanna and Brad’s wedding earlier this month.  You can watch the video above for a more in-depth explanation of the setup and how everything was done, but here is the “Cliff-Notes” version:

• kicker light is a Canon 430 EZ fired in manual mode, and triggered with a Radio Popper JRx receiver.
• There’s a 2nd “main light” off to the left, high on a stand, which is a Canon 580 EX triggered with a Radio Popper PX receiver.
• Both units are initiated with the Radio Popper PX transmitter.