At your average Edmonton Oilers game, there are 12 players on the ice (and another 40 or so on the bench) and 17,533 people in the stands.

This is, when you look at it, a fairly good metaphor for the way the world works. There’s far more people who watch than do. Who consume rather than create.

And yes, when it comes to professional hockey, that’s to be expected. But there’s a lot of areas of life where there are a few doers and a lot of observers, even though the cost of entry to be a participant is quite low.

In photography, for instance, there’s a lot of people who like to look at the pretty pictures. Who maybe even dream, “one day, I’d like to be like that person….”

It’s okay to like to look at the pretty pictures. But unlike professional hockey, you don’t need to practice, to spend your entire life training and working towards the goal of getting great pictures taken of you. Indeed. You want to look good in a photo? All you need to do is hire a professional. (I might be able suggest a few…)

Okay, there’s one other thing you need to do. You need to commit. It’s okay to be a little scared, but you have to be willing to say “screw it, I’m doing this.”

I talk a lot about trying to capture you: your beauty, your personality, your character. About not putting you into a pre-defined box But I don’t want you to think that means I’m just going to leave you flailing in front of the camera. I’m not a big fan of “these ten poses”, where you take and put each and every person into the same exact pose as you have put everyone else in. Instead, I practice what might be called “Setting the scene”.

Setting the scene means that instead of putting you into exactly one position (“sit just so; turn your head just so…”, I will give you a concept to explore. “Okay, now, grab the bottom of your shirt with both hands. One hand really, really wants to pull the shirt off, while the other hand really wants to keep the shirt on, so you’re pulling up with one hand and down with the other….”

And, while you’re doing that, if something isn’t looking quite right, or if there’s something that can be done to tweak the shot and make it look better? You better believe that I will suggest it. But a lot of times, it’s simply giving people the opportunity to move, to play in the space that creates the best images. Yes, the final image will be static, but that doesn’t mean you have to be. You can go ahead and jump and dance and twirl. I’ll be there to catch those perfect moments.

Bringing us back to the hockey metaphor, you can think of what I do as a coach. You bring your own set of skills to the table. You smile this way, you move this way, you have this experience that you can draw upon. My goal is to reveal and refine what makes you you.

Do you want to be in the stands just watching? Or do you want to be one of the people doing one of the people down on the ice as it were? Are you just here to look at the pretty pictures? If so, that’s OK. But if you want to make the step from looking at the pictures to being in the pictures, then contact me.