Your Lens

I became aware of this filter business when I first started freelancing and was happy to take just about any assignment that came my way. I was sent to a dreary old hospital in a run-down part of town. The public relations director told me to take pictures of the patient rooms and sent me off with her assistant. The rooms were run down and depressing. Eager to make everything look beautiful, I left and came back with bouquets of flowers and plants. I asked the most attractive patients to be in my pictures, then asked them to put on their most colorful robes and freshen up their makeup. I pulled in nurses and doctors to be a part of the shots to achieve person-to-person connectedness and cheer up those dreary rooms.

I was thrilled with how great my photos looked. But when I delivered them to the client, she was furious with me, “We wanted to show how much the hospital needs to be remodeled.” I’ll never forget that experience. My first instinct is always to make places and people look as good as they can possibly look. That’s not always what the doctor ordered. Be aware when you shoot, and even when you just look around at the people and places in your life, the lens you are using, your point of view, and the filters you put on make an enormous difference. This is true not only in your photography but in how you see and experience the world around you and more importantly, the people in it.