What the what??? Yes, there is a direct correlation between the two. I started my training in portrait photography in my sophomore year of high school. I shot everything and anything I could: human interest portraits, studio portraits, kids’ birthday parties, weddings, fine art nudes in college, intimate portraits, etc. Lately, I can be convinced to shoot wedding photography and children/family portraits (not my normal choice). But the thing I am most struck by in photography is the similarity it has with shooting guns.
Backstory: my father was in law enforcement. His father was an expert shot in the military. His brother was a sniper for Santa Barbara PD. Somehow, the gene skipped my dad, who can’t hit the broad side of a barn from twenty feet, and was gifted to me. I was absolutely obsessed with going to the range from the time I was 11 years old. Crazy, right? I still lust for the Walther PPK .380, the epitome of a beautiful piece of machinery.
What I learned on the range was the same as portrait photography and life in general: let your subconscious take over. Your perfect shot is always a surprise! When you pull the trigger of your gun, or press the shutter of your camera, you are always right on target when you don’t actually expect to shoot. The most amazing shots I have ever captured are a total surprise to me. I am able to just breathe, and when that shutter snaps, I know I have something special, or a bullseye, on my hands.
Isn’t that a great lesson for life? Let go…let your subconscious take over what you see…step out of perfect control and be guided by something other than your grey matter? Yes, it’s a loss of our OCD impulses, but sometimes the grey matter steers us wrong.
