My Birthday Wish

Photo taken by my son Ryan when the light hit me just perfect

September 12, 1955… the day I was born. 

To give a little perspective. 

In the 50’s houses cost on average $15,000, a brand new Chrysler New Yorker cost $4,500, and gasoline was about 25 cents a gallon.  Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Patti Page and Tony Bennett were amongst the most popular musicians.  Sit down in front of your black and white TV and watch Bonanza, Gunsmoke and the Twilight Zone.  There were no computers, no internet, no NASA, no iPhone, and no Xbox 360’s.

So what do I want for my birthday, what is my real birthday wish?  Here is a short list:

• American government, FIX it.  Come on, it has been broken for years.  Can’t we come up with 2 presidential candidates we can all be proud of and not have to always vote for the best of two really bad choices?

• In addition to WORLD peace, I want inner peace.  Have not had it for years.  My soul left when my son Eric was diagnosed Paranoid Schizophrenic when he was 19 and then died in his sleep over 6 years ago.

• I want to feel like I made a real contribution to the world even in my own small way.  What kind of legacy will I really leave?

• I want my photography to be so unique, interesting and beautiful that I will be unable to keep up with the work.

• I want my photography to be valued by more than a passing “like” or a single comment on social networks. 

• I want to feel young again.  I am stiff, sore and inflexible created by a lifetime of sports and orthopedic surgeries. I won the battle of multiple club championships in golf and tennis but lost the war of flexibility. While I am wishing, how about single vision instead of double vision created by my health incident a few months back?

• I want to hear one person whisper to another…… “hey, isn’t that Thomas Schmuki, the world famous photographer?”

• Two months from now I want to look back and say, “MAN I SHOULD HAVE RETIRED YEARS AGO, now I can do what I really love 24/7 – Photography”

• How about a real friend?

I know most of my wishes are unrealistic, but I do frequently think about these things.

That’s all I want….. But hey, there is always Christmas.

Tom

Does your photographer?

• Study new photography techniques at least 5 hours a week?
• Teach photography classes?
• Scout out a venue before the event to determine best time of day to shoot, locations and lighting?
• Invest in the finest photography equipment available and then spend the required time to optimize that gear to the best results?
• Shoot over 20,000 pictures a year?
• Come to location shoots with professional strobes and light modifiers?
• Have photographic timing and composition skills? 
• Give you an incredible photographic session experience: fun, challenging, exciting?
• Even ask you what your best side is?
• In the post processing editing process, does your photographer:
• Make sure white balance and colors are on point?
• Do face sculpting including double chin lessening?
• Paint face with highlights, mid-tones and shadows to create the best you possible?
• Selective adjust width of one or more eye to balance them out?
• Selectively sharpen specific items that are important to you like: jewelry, shoes, lipstick, hair, clothing?
• Spend time on each edited photo to make it “magazine worthy?”
• Crop the photo to maximize composition?
• Do portrait retouching including:Full Makeup (lipstick in a full range of colors and textures, false eyelashes, eyeshadow, blusher, mascara, eyeliner, rouge)? Skin smoothing and blemishing removal? Eye clarity, whitening and sharpening? Teeth whitening and sharpening?
• Create beautiful artistic effects that can make your picture look interesting, dramatic, different, like a painting?
• Does your photographer consider all shades of black and white when considering black and white?
• Optimize exported JPEG for intended purpose including social networking sites and printing/enlargements?
• Backup your photos to 3 separate sources including cloud storage and off-site backups?

• Get up at 4:30 am because he/she is so excited to do another sunrise photo shoot at the beach?

  If you have found a photographer that does these things, you have found a true GEM.