Can it be that I’m posting TWO blog posts in one week?  While I’d point out that this is a record, I suppose that goes without saying on a blog with four total posts…  Just goes to show I have a long way to go.  Also, probably dangerous waters publishing a blog post with such a title.  Rest assured, I don’t mean about that.

I was hired to shoot some family portraits at a couple’s 50th anniversary party recently.  A nice gig where everyone is happy and the couple who was celebrating 50 years was just as cute as could be.  Actually, they were downright adorable.  They were each joking about what saints they were for putting up with the other for all these long years but it was pretty obvious that they were in a marriage that was improving each day – even after 50 years.  My hat off to you two!  May your next 50 make the last seem dull.

Now this blog post is not about saying yes to proposals for marriage or even about saying yes to photographing family portraits.  Although those people are so stinkin’ cute…

So after we spent some time in the park photographing family portraits, the couples’ children (who hired me for the shoot) invited me to join them at their home for a drink or some food.

$50 tip: Always say yes.  This tip is for you photographers out there who think that you’re shooting strict documentary photography and have to keep yourself at arms-length from the content of your shoot.  You don’t have to stage things in your work and interfere with documenting life, but get involved.  Go ahead, have a drink with your clients/subjects/whatever.  You never know what opportunities you will afford yourself in doing so.

So, as the post suggests, I said yes to their invitation and went back to their home for a drink.  While I was there, I took some photos of their unique cat and continued snapping a few photos of the family while hanging out.  Then, I decided that I needed a different lens for an image I was trying to make.  When I went out to my car, this is the scene I passed (and then photographed).

Obviously these photos are not what I was hired to shoot.  And clearly I’d not have taken these photos if I’d declined the offer for a drink after I “finished working”.  Luck plays a funny role in photography sometimes.  But you can’t get lucky if you don’t keep your mind open.  And say yes to whatever.

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