Tamagini Design Blog » From the Blog of Photographer Jeff Tamagini

Well Sunday is Christmas, so Merry Christmas to all my blog onlookers.  I took this last week in Faneuil Hall of the giant Christmas tree.  I worked this tree from near and far, wide angle and telephoto.  Ultimately the telephoto shots from midway worked best.  It was one of the first times in a long time I had most of my gear with me, that means backpack with multi lenses, tripod and accessories.  I really wanted to get people in motion and I think it is accented well by the two women standing still looking at the tree.

Just after I took this photo I was just hanging around waiting for my buddy John who was down the street shooting City Hall and I was approached by a guy and his girlfriend.  He said, “You look like a professional photographer, could you take out photo with the tree in the background?”  I smiled and I said I guess you could call me that, said sure and he handed me his Nikon D5000.  Not that it matters but for those that don’t know it is Nikon’s entry level DSLR.  It was set to full auto, popup flash the whole nines.  I wasnt about to fiddle with the settings for two reasons, first I shoot Canon and I have no idea where all the Nikon settings are, and second I didnt want to screw it up for the guy if he just said thanks grabbed it and left before I had a chance to change it back.  Anyway, I take a picture, to me, it horrid, bad on camera flash etc, but it is of him and his girl during the holidays and that is what matters right?

I say let me take one more, I get down low and shoot upwards to get more of the tree in the background.  Just as I am about to take the picture, he gets down on one knee pulls out a ring and asks her to marry him.  I can’t make this shit up!  So in that instant I have to snap into “professional” mode.  My camera is 10 feet away, so I am left with the gear I have in my hand, in this case someone elses camera.  I do my best snapping away about ten frames, I got the kneel, the shaking, him putting the ring on her finger a big kiss and her all teary eyed.  All pop up flash all full auto nothing “pro” about it.

I tell you this story because over this last week and a half of the year, it is not about making perfect pictures.  Sometimes it is about capturing those moments for other people.  I don’t even remember their names, I doubt they remember mine, I never gave them my business card, but they will always have and always remember the photos that the “professional photographer” took for them that night in Faneuil Hall the night he proposed.  So this weekend, when creepy Uncle Frank asks you to take his picture with his horrible reindeer antlers and inappropriate Christmas sweater, just do it, because you never know what it might really mean to them