Welcome Back Cotter .... err, Coyote

So, yeah, it's been a few months since I last posted anything. Life has been hectic with my daytime job, the family, projects for some of my social groups, and just various bumps in the road. It got to the point where I wasn't sure if I needed to go left or turn right, so something had to give. I shed a few responsibilities (sadly, but needed) and refocused on a few things that I had been neglecting. Photography was the main one. At one point, it had been about a month since I had actually pulled the camera out of the bag and shot something. Anything at all. It was then that I realized that I couldn't let this drop by the wayside or I'd never pick it back up again.

Anyway, I was reading A Photo Editor's post Here's what I think of your pictures today and it struck home a bit. Rob talks about a scene from Walk the Line where Johnny Cash is trying to make his first record and the record producer doesn't want anything to do with it.

Bring… bring it home? All right, let’s bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you were lying out in that gutter dying… and you had time to sing one song, huh, one song… people would remember before you’re dirt… one song that would let God know what you felt about your time here on earth… one song that would sum you up…

you telling me that’s the song you’d sing?

That same Jimmie Davis tune we hear on the radio all day? About your peace within and how it’s real and how you’re gonna shout it?

Or would you sing something different? Something real, something you felt?
Because I’m telling you right now… that’s the kind of song people want to hear.
That’s the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain’t got nothing to do with believing in God, Mr. Cash.

It has to do with believing in yourself.

That last line caught me. Sometimes I put the camera down for days, even weeks, because I'm not sure if what I'm doing is good. It's a struggle, a genuine struggle some days to find something that I think will pan out photographically. I shoot a lot of (what I think is) crap. It drives me nuts. I can see my progression over the last year and a half and can tell that I'm doing better in quite a few areas.

Last month, I went to the big Strobist meetup we had in Austin and came away with four photos that I absolutely loved. We shot at Siena, a restaurant here in Austin. I had no idea what I was going to do when I walked in and found my group. I just knew that I wasn't feeling particularly happy about shooting. Just not up to it or in the right head space for it. But I'm glad I did it because, by the end of the day, I was feeling confident about what I was doing. And it just comes down to being confident in what my abilities are. Eight months ago I didn't understand how to create photos like these. Hell, I hated taking photos of people. I just didn't get it.

What I'm getting at is that, like that moment in the movie, you've got to believe in what you can do in order to pull something out of your ass that works, works well, and works when you need it to.

On top is Mira and Kaitlin, followed by Valerie and Kimmie on the bottom.