So on Sunday I spent a few hours at Fitchburg Municipal Airport to see if there were any photos to shoot.  When I showed up I found a group of people waiting for rides on three small planes one of which is depicted above.  For a nominal fee (I think $300?) one could get a half hour in the air in one of these beautiful machines.  I had the kit lens on and got some nice wide angle shots of the planes, and the airfield.

I tried to summon up the courage to ask people if I could photograph them, but it was very hard to do… I asked one elderly gentleman and he immediately refused and I felt bad for having asked.  Fortunately there was one couple there who wanted their picture taken by one of the planes and the airport staff were nice enough to let me do so.  The portraits came out GREAT and I was really stoked about that.

After about 40 minutes a thunderstorm rolled in and I tried to get lightning shots but it didn't work out.  The staff put the planes in the hangars and everyone waited for it to pass.  Afterward the planes came back out and the rides resumed.  After the rain I found a gorgeous Black Jaguar XK120 parked outside the main building in a big puddle and got some nice shots of it and its reflection.  Before leaving I loaned my memory card to one of the staff members so that he could have copies of the photos I took.  He was quite pleased.

All in all, it was a nice afternoon, and at least two people asked me to email pictures to them.  While doing the post processing at home I thought idly about doing this for a living.  I think I would like that, but before that can happen I have to know what the heck I'm doing, and eventually graduate back to film.  I had been idly considering this for quite some time actually.  Yesterday I tried to think of a name that I could use for such a business while sitting in my driveway staring at my ugly old barn.  Eventually “Old Barn Photography” came to mind, and I thought that would be great.

Last night I decided to order a small batch of “Moo” minicards with some of my photos on them, and my name and phone number on the back, just to hand out to people when I am out shooting, either as a means of encouraging them to let me take their picture, or to just “get my name out there”.  I had the batch all set up to say “Old Barn Photography” on the back when it suddenly occurred to me that this name might already be in use.  And wouldn't you know it?  It is.  Jesus.

So I started wracking my brain to come up with another name on the spot, but most of the things I thought of either struck me as pretentious or were already in use, or both!  I liked the name “Abacquer's Aerie” but nobody would be able to pronounce it.  It was getting late and I was tired, so finally I just put “Chuck Seggelin, Photographer” on the back.  And this struck me as the most pretentious of all.  Photographer.  Yeah right.  I'm just some jamoke with a camera.  But I decided to go ahead and print the cards anyway.  It's only a small batch and I can always print a new set later if and when I get better and decide to seriously try and make a living doing this.  In the meantime they are probably going to go mostly to friends and family.

Kind of silly I suppose.

It's not the first time I've dreamed about becoming a photographer… the last time was around 1992 or thereabouts, and I couldn't afford the film investment to learn.  But I'm trying very hard this time around, and if a day goes by where I don't at least take a few pictures, I get agitated.  It's a strong desire, and this has been a year for change.  No doubt about that.

Anyway, if I give you one of my silly cards, try to mentally edit out the “Photographer” and replace it with “Schmuck With a Camera”.