At the end of April, I attended the Texas School of Professional Photography in Addison, TX. A few weeks before our class started, our instructor Steve Kozak, began giving us a few assignments. One of those assignments was to bring 10 of our favorite or most memorable photos to school with us, and to enlarge two of the best. 

For me, it was a hard decision, because my technically best photos are not always my favorite or most memorable photos and vise versa. But, I narrowed down 10 photos and had them printed for class. 

On the day we were supposed to bring our images, I still didn't know what the plan was or why we brought them. I thought maybe we were going to critique them for each other or maybe put them on display so we could see what types of work everyone does. 

Halfway through our morning class, Steve had us get out our favorite photo and told us we had about five minutes to write about why we had chosen the photo. Here's the photo I have entitled, "Fly Girl."

And this is what I wrote in class about Fly Girl:

As a newspaper photographer, I never knew who or what I'd be photographing from day to day. Some days were a bit dull and others were days I wouldn't trade for a million bucks.

I went to work one morning and found out that I'd be photographing a WASP that day. I didn't know who or what a WASP was, so I had to look it up online beforehand. After finding out that it was the Women Airforce Service Pilots, I got a little more excited. You see, my dad is a pilot and I've always loved flying with him and taking trips to Ellington Field each year for the Wings Over Houston Air Show.

When Jane, the reporter, and I arrived and met the lady, Barbara Heinrich, I knew it was going to be a great interview...one of the million buck assignments. The small-framed lady was full of life and as vibrant as a 20-something aged girl.

This lady had been a P-51 pilot. This fact really got my attention, because I know how amazing the P-51s are. My dad would give his left arm away to have the chance to fly in a P-51. Every year when we go to the air show, we stand in awe at the beauty and power of the P-51, so I was in awe as this lady regaled us with tales of transporting P-51s during the war. She was like a kid in a candy shop, she was so excited to share her stories.

She talked about sneaking up on the male pilots through the clouds and then hearing them freak out over the radio. She told us about buzzing corn fields to say hi to cousins and then finding corn stalks in the landing gear later. She had so many wonderful stories to share.

As with most news assignments at my paper, a lot were planned last minute. There aren't a ton of P-51s left in the world, so we obviously couldn't access one for a photo. But Barbara's kitchen was full of little model airplanes, that I believe has been painted by her children. We found a P-51 in the lot of them and dusted it off to make this...one of my favorite portraits of all time.

 

After our few minutes Steve gave us to write our stories, he told us that a few could share the stories behind their photos. He didn't want any disclaimers about how they weren't good photos or what not, he just wanted us to share why they were important to us. 

I, as most of my classmates I'm sure, did want to give disclaimers. Technically, this isn't one of my best portraits, and I didn't want my portrait judged on lighting and depth of field and white balance. It was taken about three years ago and I've learned a lot more about photography since then, so I wanted people to know that.

But that wasn't the point of the exercise. The point was to show the importance of photographs. Behind each photograph is a story. And we should tell those stories. Some people may look at my photograph and not find it very interesting, but for someone who loves flying and airplanes, I bet they would appreciate this photograph and the story behind it.

Another point to the exercise was to show the importance of having the physical photo...not the digital image. He questioned us as to whether or not we had ever had these images printed before this class. I had actually made a copy of this photo to give to Barbara. But I do have other favorite photos that I'm ashamed to admit I haven't had printed. 

After this exercise, I think even our whole class full of photographers (those who appreciate our craft more than anyone) walked away with a different perspective on photography and the value of that moment that has been frozen in time. 

 

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