Don’t Do It

December 5, 2006

I had the privilege of photographing a Ballet West dress rehearsal at the Capitol Theatre last week. The dancers were amazing and there were only about 10 people in the audience. The PR contact told me to sit wherever I wanted: “front row, balcony, the place is yours.” It was one of those great moments that I get with this job. But all I could think of is how jealous my wife would be when she found out I got to see a Ballet West production from the front row, so close you can hear the dancers’ feet pounding the stage. The next day I was photographing World Cup Luge, and in the press room among the other free snacks there was a bowl filled with Lindt Lindor Chocolate Truffles. Forget the ballet, she was more jealous when I told her about the chocolates.

With all of the fun things we get to do on the job, photographers can be quite boring when we’re off duty. After spending our work shift in the front row of the ballet or on the sidelines of the big football game, the last thing we want to do is actually go out and enjoy culture on our off time. (Not that football is culture.) In fact, I would warn everyone out there: never get involved romantically with a photographer. It’s a horrible idea.

My wife has had to deal with this for many years. I remember that it snowed the night of our first date and I actually took a few weather shots for the newspaper that night. On our first date! Can you imagine?

Another reason to stay away from photographers (and there are simply far too many for me to write about in one post) is that photography consumes us. While we love our partners, we are also in love with photography and spend far too much time thinking about it, reading about it, and making love to it with our eyes. And our meager incomes often go into buying yet more expensive equipment to feed our habits.

I can’t stress it enough: don’t get involved with a photographer. The only thing worse is when two photographers have a relationship. I just can’t imagine how bad that must be. It’s one thing when I want to spend money on gear, but what if my wife had a 24mm tilt-shift lens on her Christmas list in addition to mine? Oh, the horror!

This post also appeared on my work blog, on the Tribune’s website.

Posted by trent | Filed Under On Assignment, Trent 

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Comments

One Comment to “Don’t Do It”

  1. ash on December 5th, 2006 9:10 pm

    Chris showed me his portfolio on our first date. Then we played Nintendo…well, I played Nintendo. I got to level 18 on Duck Hunt before he could even touch the controller.

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