holiday

5 Gifts NOT To Get Photographers This Holiday Season

5 Gifts NOT To Get Photographers This Holiday Season

Itโ€™s just one of those things. One of those crazy things. While every lens wipe and filter might look the same to the untrained eye, photographers obsess over every detail down to the thousandth of a second. No exaggeration. Literally. Thousandths of a second. So, while the heart might be in the right place, there are certain things that, if you give a photographer as a gift, may do more harm than good. Here are 5 of those things:

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Thanks To Rick Sammon & Juan Pons, The Resolution Becomes The Focus. Hello 2014!

PCH_Deer_Sunset_Silhouette_Samsung_NX300_Wasim Muklashy Photography I cannot think of a better way to start off a new year! Woke up this morning to hear the great Rick Sammon and Juan Ponsย saying โ€œhe uploads some incredible work on the DPE community websiteโ€ (at the 1:08:18 mark) on the latest episode of The Digital Photo Experience podcast. They were introducing the image above, "Family Time," one youโ€™re already familiar with if you follow this blog or me on Google Plus, that I uploaded to the showโ€™s Google Plus community with hopes of being chosen as one of their critiques.

Thatโ€™s the 3rd image critique by these heavy-hitters in the past 12 months that Iโ€™ve been humbled with, further validating, at least to me, that after more than 3 decades of life-defining (and psyche-altering) mistake after another, I may finally be doing something right!! 2013 was definitely what Iโ€™d consider my breakout year in photography as Iโ€™ve finally become comfortable with myself, what I have learned, and what I have yet to learn. Itโ€™s like a switch hit me at some point in the sense of, when I used to not know something or get it wrong, I would get frustrated. Now, and Iโ€™m not sure if itโ€™s a matter of confidence or if itโ€™s simply naive excitement at realizing that itโ€™s more fun when you struggle through something and finally get it rightโ€ฆthereโ€™s more value to that, so now (in most cases at leastโ€ฆ) instead of marinating in frustration, that thought comes and goes within a split second, being replaced by, oh well, now I know better, I can practiceย thatโ€ฆ

And with that, thanks to Rick and Juan, I finally have my New Years Resolutionโ€ฆroll with it, and invite everything as a learning experience. God knows I know we all go through really tough times and we all go through really good times. We have lonely moments in which we believe we are alone in a world of 7 billion humans, and we have overwhelming moments reminding us that we reallyย neverย alone. Itโ€™s reallllly easy to fall into the trap of sulking in the negativity, especially when you convince yourself that thereโ€™s no way out, making it way too convenient to overshadow the good, but it seems to be just that simple switch in your mind that you have to hit that transforms sulking into exploring - exploring your thoughts, your feelings, your ideas, and how and what you need to do to learn from your explorations and come out the other end with an idea of to correct it or turn it into a learning experience. At the very least an idea of what not to do and what you donโ€™t want in your life. In other words, to look at things not as setbacks, but as challenges to overcome.

So after spending New Years Eve alone on the couch with a glass of scotch, the remnants of a nagging cold, and Anthony Bourdainโ€™s book โ€œA Cookโ€™s Tour - In Search Of The Perfect Mealโ€ (a real paper book!), in which the colorfully eloquent rebel chef travels the grittiest corners of the world in pursuit of his true passion, that one thing that brings people together like nothing else - the perfect meal - I woke up to a reminder of what life is all aboutโ€ฆthe journey, the search, the experiences, the upsย andย the downs, that keep us in pursuit of our true passions - learning what (and sometimesย who)ย to hold onto, and what (and of course,ย who)ย to let go of.

So thank you everyone for being such an inspirational and positive part of my journey in 2013, and thanks to all who who graciously allowed me to be a part of yours.

And with that, I will leave you with a quote from a very good friend:

โ€œMay the high point of 2013 be the low point of 2014โ€ฆโ€

Boom! Letโ€™s do this thing!

Here are the rest of images from the series that "Family Time" came from, all shot on the Samsung NX300:

Far Meadow - Yup. A Photo Trip. (Part 2)

Far Meadow - Yup. A Photo Trip. (Part 2)

And tonightโ€ฆI write by candlelightโ€ฆ

So yeah, the power on the trailer went out so I'm left with a few candles and just enough charge to offload today's photos and jot down today's haps, so, again, I'll try to keep it as short and sweet as I can and hopefully let some of the images do the talkingโ€ฆ

I must say, waking up to a symphony of birds singing, mist evaporating, and the soft golden sunlight beaming through decades old redwoods, bouncing poetically across wildflowers outside your windowโ€ฆdoes. not. suck. 

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