"Stress had it's benefits!..."

                                                                                                                                                                  

I was a professional photographer from 1974-1999 (25 years) and during that time photographed hundreds of weddings, portraits and commercial work.

Photographers back then were taught to bracket as an insurance policy, shoot every shot, one over exposure and one underexposure and one normal, in case the light meter may had been off, or if the light shifted during the photo. I can remember taking 20- rolls for a wedding to get a nice album of 30 great shots.

There was always the wait for the film, since most photographers had a professional lab they relied on, and living in Alaska I had to rely on Labs in the Seattle area, it would be 7-10 days until my stress level was calmed by seeing the results of my labor.

Now photographers can photograph digitally and see the results instantaneously, no need to bracket exposures or buy hundreds of rolls of film. No need when traveling to take your film out to be hand inspected since airport x-ray could damage film with streaks.

No need to buy film, no waiting for your results and now being able to see your work immediately has taken most of the stress out of a profession that used to be quite the challenge.

Professional photography has become fool proof, the only draw back is the photographers of this age, make much less than I did back in the day. Stress had it's benefits!