For many years a few of my friends have been discussing how to offer a hands-on workshop for those who feel a call to use their cameras in missions.
Jeff Raymond, ABWE Director of Visual Communications, called me, and we talked for a while about our dreams.
We still need a few things to come together for this workshop to work. First, along with James Dockery, ESPN Video Editor, Jeff Raymond, and myself, we will be helping to train college students in storytelling for missions.
Next May, we are taking nine students to Lisbon, Portugal, where each will work on a multimedia project telling a story about missionary work in Lisbon.
The students will go through all the stages of the storytelling process. Then, as they work on the project, they will receive instruction and opportunities to capture images and critique so that they can make adjustments the next day and continue to refine the story.
If you know of college students or are one yourself that is interested, go to this link [https://storytellersabroad.com] to learn more and register. We are taking applications, and those who register before December 1st are first in line. This first deadline is not the final deadline, but we encourage you to register early.
The nuts and bolts of running a business are the most important thing you need to be a successful independent photographer. More than 95% of your time as an independent photographer will be spending time marketing, doing estimates, and negotiating with clients.
National Press Photographers Association has been conducting business seminars not just for their members but for anyone interested.
The event gave photographers information to help empower them in business practices. However, at no point did any of the speakers show their award-winning photographs and talk about how they made their pictures.
Greg Smith, independent photographer, NPPA board member, and chairman of the business practices committee, helped create the business calculator on the NPPA website.
A few years ago, during Alicia Calzada’s time as the NPPA president, she and Greg Smith worked on business practices for the membership. Greg is the one who created the NPPA Business Calculator, which is referenced by everyone teaching photographers today how to run their business.
Greg walked everyone through the different calculator fields, helping to explain why each of these fields is needed to come up with a working budget for the “Cost of doing business.”
Beer Money or Rent Money
One of the problems many staff photographers continue to have is that they often think of doing side jobs for “beer money.” The problem is the following week, many of these staff photographer’s business model of working for “beer money” and using company gear will not work when they have to buy their equipment, pay for all the costs of running a business and then have enough money left for now their basic needs like “rent.”
Mickey Osterreicher, NPPA Attorney
Mickey Osterreicher told us over and over, “it’s complicated.” He helped us better understand copyright, contracts, and how to negotiate with clients. He helped clear that we need to register our images every three months, not every ninety days. So come February, when you have less than ninety days, you can get caught where some of your pictures are not protected.
There are four legal issues that you must address for a photograph to meet the “Fair Use” requirements.
Purpose
Nature
Amount and Substantiality
Effect of the use
We learned that the cap per image violation was $150,000, divided by the parties that misused the idea if they were all related. We knew the differences between copyright and license. Understanding this was how we were able to negotiate more effectively with clients. We learned what must exist for a contract. Offer + Consideration + Acceptance = Contract He even helped us understand that you can have an oral agreement, depending on where you live.
Deb Pang Davis, Assistant Professor, Syracuse University
Deb Pang Davis explained that for our business to be successful, we had to understand our brand and know how to build it in the community. “You are already a brand,” she said. “Do you know what it is?”
She encouraged everyone and especially the students, to think LONG terms. She is fostering long-term as in ten years into the future. Then you need to present the work to the audience you want to do.
One of the most significant pitfalls of most business people is getting stuck on a “roller coaster.” This is where you do “11 marketing.” You have rent due, work hard to market, and then get some work. The next time you sell is when the work starts to drop off.
Deb gave us many different ways to market and build your brand so that you can avoid those roller coaster rides of the past.
Stanley Leary & Akili Ramsess [photo by Mark E. Johnson]
Deb Pang Davis explained that for our business to be successful, we had to understand our brand and know how to build it in the community. “You are already a brand,” she said. “Do you know what it is?”
She encouraged everyone and especially the students, to think LONG terms. She was encouraging me to think ten years into the future. Then you need to present the work to the audience you want to do.
One of the most significant pitfalls of most business people is getting stuck on a “roller coaster.” This is where you do “911 marketing.” First, you have rent due, work hard to market, and then get some work. ThThen, theext time you sell is when the work starts to drop off.
Deb gave us many different ways to market and build your brand so that you can avoid those roller coaster rides of the past.
[photo by Mark E. Johnson]
While I came to speak, I also came to learn. I took a lot of notes. While most everything presented I had heard before, I did hear new ways of presenting the material. I am always looking for a better way to tell the story, and I learned a few new ways to do just that. I cannot encourage you enough to spend the time to get to know this material so that you, too, can be a successful independent photographer.
Alive After 5 is the Third Thursday each month, April – October, from 5-9 pm on Canton Street in downtown Roswell, GA.
I love living in Roswell, GA. While we are in one of the most extensive metro communities in the United States, Roswell has a slight-town feel. We have events like the Alive After five during the summer months where the community comes together to experience each other, music, arts, and food.
Here is Seth Gamba, orchestra teacher at Elkins Pointe Middle school, playing the drums with the orchestra. The group plays on electric string instruments and even plays some rock tunes during the Alive After five event. My daughter plays in the group on viola. Proud dad, as you can see.
The community loves to do positive things together. Today people are seeking out experiences. Walt Disney understood this when he built Disney Land and Disney World.
Here is my wife with the Paranoia Haunted House crash at Alive After 5 to promote their business.
My wife loves to post photos like this to her Facebook account, and from the number of likes and comments, I know the rest of her friends also love this.
Role of the Journalist
Webster’s Dictionary states, “Journalism is the activity or job of collecting, writing, and editing news stories.” In addition, Wikipedia says journalism “serves the purpose of playing the role of a public service machinery in the dissemination and analysis of news and information.”
In the broader sense, the media’s role is to help communities connect. So I see journalists as assisting people in plugging into their community network, and the connection is being made through the media.
The pie has many slices when you look at all the content a local media outlet should cover in their community. One of the slices journalism serves in a democracy is to inform the community to better play a role in their government.
Wikipedia says, “In a democratic society, however, access to free information plays a central role in creating a system of checks and balance, and in distributing power equally between governments, businesses, individuals, and other social entities. Moreover, access to verifiable information gathered by independent media sources, which adhere to journalistic standards, can also serve ordinary citizens by empowering them with the tools they need to participate in the political process.”
I fear too many journalists only serve their audience a slice of the pie. They want more than just the things in their community going wrong. If you were to graph out the story coverage of many media outlets, I think you would find that there is a lopsided coverage on the squeaky wheel.
Could you take media coverage of their community, and would it reflect the exact percentages of categories of stories taking place daily, or would it be slanted?
What about work communities?
Most communication offices within corporations serve as the media for their community. I find my role within a nonprofit was very similar to my position at the newspaper. My part working for a large corporation is also very similar.
The breaking news story in the nonprofit and business world are the stories that management needs to tell. While we do not have investigative journalists looking into leadership and reporting this to the community, we have companies realizing that transparency is the best way to build customer affinity. As a result, you are finding more PR professionals communicating where their company has made a mistake and how they are acting to correct it.
Audience
|
Medium
|
Storyteller
|
Subject
The common theme for communications professionals is serving as the subject and audience conduit. The most powerful way to make this connection is through the story. Therefore, we use some medium to deliver that story to the audience.
Mistakes Storytellers Make
All you need to do is look at those four words above: 1) Audience, 2) Medium, 3) Storyteller, and 4) Subject. If anyone diminishes these in importance, then the connections are not made. The result of this, over time, is a community that lacks cohesiveness.
I believe many professional communicators misdirect their thoughts to either the medium or the subject. They buy the latest gear and try fantastic shots and forget the story. Sometimes they get so attached emotionally to the topic that they lose their objectivity to know the story.
I believe the audience is the most overlooked part of the puzzle, more often than the medium or subject.
I believe Steve Jobs was one of the best business people who understood the audience. When he rolled out new products, they were not what people wanted or needed. No one talked about a computer with a graphical interface before he helped to introduce the Mac. No one knew what a tablet device was before he introduced the iPad.
What Steve Jobs did know was how to help improve the lives of his audience. He saw how they lived and how he could improve their lives. Great storytellers need to know their audience just as well. This way, when we tell them stories of subjects in their community, they will line up just like people do when Apple releases a new product. They know it will be a great story because yesterday they gave me a great experience.
The secret about your audience
When you immerse yourself into the community you are covering; you find your subjects for the story.
Even businesses like Starbucks and Chick-fi-A train their employees to learn about their customers and to connect with them. For example, watch this video done by Chick-fil-A.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v0RhvZ3lvY]
I encourage storytellers to discover their communities. Find where they congregate and those who want and need to communicate with those groups. Then become an expert on the subjects that they cover for those audiences.
Deb Pang Davis, Assistant Professor, Syracuse University
In Deb Pang Davis’ comments to the National Press Photographers Association Business Blitz at the Grady School of Journalism, she encouraged photographers to be involved in social media. Social media is one of the best ways to join a community. People get to know you, and you get to know them and share content.
Like real estate, your photos will look better when you choose your location. Springtime is the time of year for holiday parties, school dances, and even weddings. So while going into your yard and finding a clean background is a great idea, picking a location in your town that stands out may be a better idea.
Here you can see all the parents watching as I take the group and a couple of pictures. Looking closely, you will see my one Alienbees B1600 with the original vagabond battery by Pau Buff. It is to the far right in back [yellow head].
Another tip is to use a tripod. There are a couple of good reasons to d this. First, your photos are sharper when the camera is rock steady still. Second, if one person in a group photo blinks and another person in another photo, you can always copy and paste one person into the other image using Pho Shop. This way, everyone will look good in one shot.
Centennial Junior/Senior Prom
Bullock Hall
Fill Flash
The subjects are all backlighted by the sun in all these photos. Unless you use a flash, you will have difficulty holding the background and their faces to get a good exposure. I metered the scene: ISO 100, ƒ/8, and 1/50. I then set the flash to ƒ/5.6 or one-stop under whatever I would have metered for the overall scene.
Here I composed a wider shot to show Bulloch Hall, where the grandparents of President Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, and great grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady from 1934-1945, lived.
Centennial Junior/Senior Prom
Bullock Hall
I like the closer composition over the wide shot. But I did both in case couples preferred one over the other.
Centennial Junior/Senior Prom
Bullock Hall
Whenever my family is with me, and I have gone to this much trouble for photos, I always get a picture of them.
The client will enjoy seeing choices when you get hired to shoot an environmental portrait. Having options is even more important for designers.
Some of the variations you give to the client are only you moving to the left or right to compose the photo from a slightly different angle.
For this environmental portrait, I want to show the subject works at Chick-fil-A corporate headquarters in Atlanta, GA. So I am using this logo to help establish his employer.
When using a wide-angle lens like the Nikon 14-24mm ƒ/2.8 lens, you can do portraits with the lens, but you want to keep the face closer to the center than to the edges. Here you can see the hands a slightly distorted when they are on the photo’s edges.
What I like the most about the wide-angle lens is it brings the audience into the scene and gives you a more intimate look.
Nathan McFarland
This photo was taken with the Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.4 lens. In this photo, I am shooting at ƒ/1.4 aperture. Now while it pops the subject out from the background, I am starting to lose the logo, which helps to establish the workplace.
Nathan McFarland
I liked the effect of popping the subject out from the background, but I wouldn’t say I wanted the logo to be so blurred. I then closed the aperture down slightly to ƒ/2.8. Again, I like this the best of these two options.
Before you shoot–TEST.
Your subject will most likely not have the time for you to take all day running around trying different locations. The best thing to do is have an assistant or ask for a volunteer to stand in for your test shots. Work out your lighting with them. Find all the locations before the subject shows up.
I had an assistant stand in for the subject, and we worked on locations together. I would shoot and show the assistant and ask for his feedback. Sometimes you miss something, and having another set of eyes will help you catch any distractions.
Here are some of the test shots I did about an hour before the subject met me.
Let me walk you backward through this process. The top photo is one of the potential retouched photos. I used the software program Portrait Professional to do the touchups. You may not like any of the touchups, but I wanted to show you often you may make some touchups for various reasons. This software helps speed up the process.
Below is the photo after shooting it and making very minimal adjustments in Adobe Lightroom.
I like working with a white background. The general rule is 1 to 2 stops brighter than the subject to ensure your white background remains white. I find it best to slightly angle the background so that it does not act like a mirror and creates a flair in the lens.
Camera Perspective
For this setup, I chose to use more of a copy stand setup with two large soft boxes on either side of the camera. Straight above and slightly behind the subject is a hair light with a 30º grid pointing down onto the back of the model‘s head and shoulders.
Top View
Here is the diagram of the setup.
I put two mono-blocs on the background duplicating the same angles as the softboxes on the subject. Again the location is one stop brighter than the subject.
Side view
The model can change poses and move with similar light with this setup. Freeing the mode,l letting the subject play with expressions and body positions without having to change the lights every single time we moved the model.
I started with the stool and found that the chair gave the model more to work with and feel more relaxed. However, each person is different, so you must work together to find those poses and expressions that bring out the best in the model.
Oz Magazine called me and asked to interview me a couple of months ago, and the interview is in this October’s magazine on page 43. Click here for the link. Above is the interview.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE BUSINESS?
While in college, my father gave me a camera. Immediately, I started shooting for East Carolina University while working on my social work degree. Social work was training me to understand what to look for. The experience of shooting all the time for the school helped me perfectly capture these stories.
BEST ADVICE TO YOUNG PEOPLE IN YOUR PROFESSION?
Become an expert on a subject and learn to provide a finished product, which means more than just photography.
All my clients hire me because I know a good deal about their industry—not just photography.
I am a visual storyteller using a photojournalistic approach to helping organizations build customer loyalty. My social work degree and M.A. in communications make me uniquely qualified to help people correct their environment by looking at all aspects of their life and culture.
You need to go to people with ideas and not wait for the phone to ring for someone to shoot them. The more you know about the subject and audience, the better you are positioned to develop ideas to help your client engage their audience with the content you create.
Today, I combine my photography, video, audio, and writing to help put together complete packages that my clients can use right away. Unfortunately, too many of my colleagues want to shoot and are no longer shooting because they expected the client to know what to do with their images.
When a photographer photographs people, they can capture decisive moments quickly. Mostly, they are reacting to what is happening in front of the camera. Those who do it the best are good at anticipating a moment, but they are still responding to how people behave in front of them. Most photographers can shoot from their hearts because when something moves them, they can capture it.
When a videographer captures something over time, they start rolling and then stop at some point. A videographer cannot just react to a moment and turn the camera on. The videographer must plan the coverage.
The primary difference between shooting stills [photographs] and motion
are shooting from their heads. They cannot shoot from their heart. Therefore, they must plan their shot more than the still photographer.
Here is an example of a storyboard from the book Using Your Camcorder by Mandy Matson.
Every book on capturing motion will address the need to plan your shots list out beforehand. Everyone recommends storyboarding your shots so you have a good idea of what you plan to get.
Regarding just capturing daily life, it is rare to get the same emotional content that a still photographer will capture because they cannot just react; they must plan their shots.
When filming, videographers not only shoot with a storyboard in mind. They must create emotion through the actors. As we know, one angle can usually improve the emotional moment more than another. The storyboard often has multiple camera angles to jump from to help make this work. They are filming Dumb and Dumber here in Atlanta. Take a look at some of the photos shot of the set by John Spink, the AJC photographer, here. You can see the same scene shot by John from two different places on the stage. He could do that because they would redo the scene over and over for different camera angles or variations from the actors themselves.
In the editing suite, they pick from multiple camera angles and different performances to craft the scene.
As you can see, to shoot a video, preplanning is required and not reacting from the heart at the moment.
The sound is the one thing that video has over stills for capturing emotion. Sound is why a good amount of the moving evening news footage is often the interview where the human voice conveys most of the feeling.
Television news knows the power of the still and uses it all the time for significant news events. For example, Eddie Adam’s photograph from the Vietnam War of the officer shooting the prisoner is always seen on the news when they talk about the war. Of course, they had a film crew who caught the entire shooting, but it is the still image that captures the emotion even more vital, or they would not be using it in the film.
I believe many of our iconic photographic images of people are where a photographer caught a microexpression. A microexpression is a brief, involuntary facial expression shown on the face of humans according to emotions experienced. They are short, lasting only 1/25 to 1/15 of a second.
Most people do not perceive microexpressions in themselves or others because they cannot freeze the moment to see it. You must slow a video down and look frame by frame to see them running at full speed; the average audience will not see them. The playback speed is why I think video has a more difficult time capturing emotions.
The Wizards Project was a research project at the University of California, San Francisco, led by Paul Ekman and Maureen O’Sullivan, that studied the ability of people to detect lies.
Truth Wizards use microexpressions, among many other cues, to determine if someone is being truthful. The Wizards Project has identified just over 50 people with this ability after testing nearly 20,000 people. So the research shows that in real time most people miss microexpressions.
For me, the photograph’s power is if they capture the “Decisive Moment,” then the truth-telling makes this a powerful storytelling medium. The picture can capture the storytelling moment that communicates emotion because the audience will have time to see and absorb the moment.
Video or Photograph?
From all my experience, I believe that the best visual storytellers use their heads and hearts.
The still photographer uses their head to plan to be in the right place at the right time. They can anticipate moments due to their knowledge of human behavior on a particular subject.
The videographer knows how to craft a sequence that will pull on your heart as a package—from a videographer’s experience, knowing what has moved their heart in the past.
My suggestion for those telling stories of life happening and not creating stories with actors is to do like so many news outlets do when it comes to communicating news events with a lot of emotion–use stills and the human voice to pull the audience in.
Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 with 1.4 converters, Shot at 630mm, ISO 51200, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000
I saw this post on Sports Shooter and responded to the question because I think sometimes photographers consider a lens or camera and don’t realize many settings can impact the Sharpness of a photo and acceptable noise for publication.
My Response
With today’s camera capabilities with high ISO, I think using a 300mm ƒ/4 lens for NFL football night or day games should not be a problem.
The question you should always be asking is will the photos of the subject connect with the audience.
I would then even take test shots at different ISO settings and compare the results to how the audience sees those photos.
Here is cropped version of the photo above. Notice one major thing between the two images, display size. Size impacts the noise. Again how will the audience view your work?
If they are primarily a website, you can get away with more than print.
Through the years, I have noticed a few things that impact this discussion on sports.
I have noticed a significant difference in the Sharpness of my photos when I drop below 1/1000.
There are a few factors that impact focus. But, unfortunately, so often, people blame a lens when it could be a few other things.
Factors Impacting Sharpness [which can make something look in or out of focus]
I found separating the shutter from focusing and using the back button to focus, and the shutter release to fire the camera improved focusing.
Adjust the fine tune focus on the camera to match the lens. Each camera is different. I use LensAlign
Many lenses I thought didn’t focus that fast magically were great once I upgraded my cameras to newer models.
My Nikon D4 suddenly got ten sharper images when I upgraded the firmware.
On the Nikon system, we have focus tracking. You can change how fast or slow the computer tells the camera to hunt for change in focus point. Focus tracking can make a difference if something comes between you and the subject ever so briefly [referee]
How many focus points do you use for a sport? Sometimes you need fewer and sometimes more. Controlling your focus points is why the camera manufacturers give you choices so that you can maximize your equipment for each situation.
Here is a quick video showing how calibrating your lens can improve the focus.
//player.vimeo.com/video/2504650
I think you can have a ƒ/1.4 lens that should be tact sharp, but because of all the things I mentioned above will perform poorly.
With today’s cameras’ ability to shoot high ISO, and the autofocus in lower light than before, I think you should be okay with a ƒ/4 lens shooting.
I was curious about pushing the ISO even higher to improve the Sharpness of photos and get even more keepers, so I went to another HS Football game and pushed my ISO to 51200, and here are the results.
The bottom line is always to test something before shooting for the client.
Time and time again, the most consistent comment I get about my photography is my ability to capture the moment that tells a story.
The second thing that started to help define my work was my ability to use light to improve moments.
My photos defined what I could do for clients.
I was photographing things like lasers you cannot see with the naked eye, but I was capturing this in photos.
I continued to grow and try new technology to solve the problems of clients trying to connect with their audiences. For example, I added 360º panoramic interactive pieces for the clients to put on their websites.
I then started to add just audio to slide shows that were easy to host on almost any website and more economical to produce over traditional video.
I added video and mixed this with still images to help an audience connect to the subject and feel the story.
Am I just a “photographer” anymore? I am a problem solver. I am at the core of what I do, an expert on understanding an audience and the subject and figuring out creative storytelling to connect the two.
When potential clients get to see what I do, they hire me. The trick is to lead with visual examples. I want to be “Remarkable,” and to do this; I must spread ideas. To understand what that means, watch this TED Talk by Seth Godin.
Maybe I need to tell people I am a “Communications Handyman” who is there to solve your problems. I not only can come in and diagnose your communications crisis and understand the pain, but I can also fix it.
The downside to “Communications Handyman” is that it sounds like you will fix your problems the cheapest way.
Maybe I could use “Special Forces Communications Operative,” but you may think I do war photography.
While I have picked for now “Visual Storyteller,” people want to jump and then say so you are a photographer.
Maybe I take a risk, target an audience to serve, and find a title that works with that audience. Maybe with my seminary degree, I will go after the religious market and call myself a “Visual Evangelist” or “The Visual Preacher.”
Successful Communication has four components.
Audience
Communicator [photographer]
Medium
Subject
Addressing all of these is necessary for success. Unfortunately, too many photographers often forget one or more of these. They can get caught up in the medium [gear head] or usually emotionally wrapped up in the subject with all their time. Your purpose is to connect the audience and the subject and get yourself out of the way. Now use this same model to address your marketing to an audience. Again, you are the subject, and the audience is your potential customers. Now let’s go back to those four elements again. So often, a photographer is wrapped up in the subject and forgets about that audience.
So you are shooting a picture for publications geared to women in their 40s and 50s, and you go and shoot a Punk Rock Band. How you cover it shows either you understand your audience or you do not.
So taking the photo above shows my emphasis on subject and medium. Using lights to create just an excellent image.
Here is another example that I have taken a fantastic photo of.
I am showing how popular they are, but am I connecting with my audience? For example, why would middle age women be interested in the bands?
But then I took this photo and now have my hook for the audience. My wife loved this photo so much that she used it as her profile photo on Facebook. The story for the publication audience is how these bands, who can look scary and make you wonder if your child should be near them is to explain why they appeal to your children. This is of interest to the audience. I would lead with this photo before leading with excellent photos because this connects to the audience.
You the Subject
If the professional team were to work with you and help you be more successful, then you become the subject, but who is your audience? Too many photographers again fall in love with the medium. I like taking pictures.
Two Approaches to be Big Fish in a Small Pond
Move. Let’s say you are a wedding photographer in Atlanta, Georgia. It would be easier for you to find another city to move to. Atlanta may have as many as a thousand or more wedding photographers. Maybe you look for a place where the number of photographers per population is lower.
Specialize. It is better to find a subject where few photographers if any, are providing services. Mark Johnson, the head of the photojournalism program at the University of Georgia, told me about one of his students that double majored in photojournalism and horticulture. They went to a horticulture company and sold them why they needed to bring them on board to be their communication specialist. Now that company has a better website showing their product to their audience.
The formula for success is simple. First, you have a subject and an audience in mind. It would help if you had ideas worth spreading in this arena. So go out there and be remarkable.
God, the one and only— I’ll wait as long as he says. Everything I need comes from him, so why not? He’s solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, An impregnable castle: I’m set for life.
—Psalm 62:1 MSG
One of the greatest blessings I have found in my life is anxiety. I have talked about this in many ways on this blog.
When editing my work, I become anxious because the photos don’t fully capture the event with the emotional impact I felt. When I awake in the morning, I am often stressed because I am unsure where my next project from a client will come from. Over the past few years, I have lost more clients because of their dwindling budgets.
There is an interview done with Malcolm Gladwell by the Religious News Service that you can read here.
Sarah Pulliam Bailey writes, “Gladwell said while researching the book, he began rediscovering his faith after having drifted away. Here, he speaks with RNS about his Mennonite family, how Jesus perfectly illustrates the point in his new book and how Gladwell’s return to faith changed how he wrote the book.”
The difficulty many without a faith perspective will struggle with is how this one review by J. Gomez put it, “I have a tough time buying the notion that people succeed because of their difficulties, “The second, more intriguing, possibility is that they succeeded, in part, because of their disorder–that they learned something in their struggle that proved to be of enormous advantage.” So I see it as overcoming challenges, making the best of what you have.”
Malcolm Gladwell gave a TED Talk recently on the classic story of David and Goliath. When revisiting the story, he discovers some hidden truths he missed growing up in the church hearing the story.
Making the best of what you have is total self-reliance and the belief that you completely control your circumstances.
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
—Saint Augustine
I believe that those with a very close relationship with God have a healthy balance, as St. Augustine so eloquently put it. The tension is in the part that it is often a collaboration between man and God.
Many questions why a loving God would ever allow for evil in this world.
If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will―that is, for making a real world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings―then we may take it it is worth paying.
― C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity
I have never been in a place where I was entirely at peace. But, unfortunately, in the tension of life, we can choose to see our glasses as half empty or half full.
Recently I wrote about how seasoned professional photographers look at their contact sheets and look for what they could do better. They are aware of the shortcomings of their images to what they felt and saw with their own eyes. Their struggle is an enormous advantage over the lousy photographer who looks only for a good idea.
As iron sharpens iron,
so one person sharpens another. ―Proverbs 27:17 MSG
I wrote earlier about one of my greatest struggles with Aspergers. Here are links to those two blog posts
Asperger’s Syndrome It would not be until the adult years that I understood that I had Asperger’s Syndrome. Early on, I went for psychological testing because of my behavior in the classroom. They suspected I had Autism, but
While many think that those with Asperger’s Syndrome lack sensitivity to others and lack empathy, I believe just the opposite. While their outward social skills are lacking, they know many things people do not see.
Today you are facing many things which create anxiety. Don’t be the person who thinks you alone can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. To overcome the fear that pressure brings into our lives, you need to know you cannot do this alone.
I recommend reading this prayer today and every day. Make it your prayer, and you can overcome the anxiety of this world.
The Serenity Prayer
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
―Reinhold Niebuhr
One of the critical things I have been struggling with has been my identity and how I describe myself to others.
As a side note to this thought, you might not be aware that the Jewish people try not ever to say the name of God because by just saying it, we limit what God can be. Theologians call this putting God in a box.
If we were indeed created in God’s image as written in Genesis, then it would appear that we should be as careful about putting not just God in a box as we are. Is it possible that the reason for much of our anxiety is that we may define ourselves as photographers alone, and this has limited our abilities?
What would have happened if David had been older and allowed adult thoughts to limit his ability to kill Goliath? The key to the story of David and Goliath is that David acknowledged that all his victories were not his own but because of God. David said, “God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear, will deliver me from this Philistine.”
David wasn’t thinking about being a shepherd or running to be king. Instead, David saw the anxiety of his people and believed the God who protected him while in the battle for his sheep would allow him to take on Goliath.
If you have lost your job as a staff photographer or are losing clients for various reasons, don’t limit yourself by defining yourself as just a photographer. That is how David’s brothers tried to explain and send him home. David was not a shepherd; David was a faithful follower of God and trusted God to deliver him every day as he watched his flock of sheep.
Why am I grateful for the stresses of this world that create anxiety in my life? Because without them, I wouldn’t need to get on my knees today and ask God to give me the wisdom to know what I should do today.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
―Philippians 4:4-9 [NIV]
