Cherokee backroads provide a photo safari
MARCH - APRIL 2020 | CHEROKEE LIFE 11
Over the years I heard people say that
photography was a universal language.
Since communicating could be one of the
most difficult things that humans do, I’m
thankful that we have an alternate way to
show delight, even if it’s unspoken. When
I take a picture, I feel like I’m freezing that
second in time to show everyone just how
precious our world really is.
I’ve always been interested in art. My
late mother said that I was artistic, but my
wife jokingly says that I am autistic; she
may be partially correct. I started dabbling
in photography back in the day when
paying for each developed picture was the
norm. I was thankful when companies
started charging only for the pictures that
were kept. Today, I am thankful for digital
photography.
Photography was a big deal to me
until my daughters were born. I’m sure
we skipped some nice vacations to pay
for the hordes of pictures that I took of
them. Then, I started taking wedding
pictures. Things were going great until
things stopped going great. Most brides
and bride’s mothers seemed to want
an hour’s worth of pictures taken in 10
minutes. When I finally landed a large
wedding photography shoot, I was
delighted. Just to make sure things went
well, I invited another photographer
to join me. We snapped and adjusted,
barked instructions, and had a fantastic
day shooting the largest wedding either of
us had ever seen. What we didn’t do was
to size up the huge sanctuary in advance
to make sure we could properly light up
the large wedding party. Unfortunately,
neither of our pictures were worthy of
charging the newlyweds one cent.
With a gulp in my throat, I handed
the couple a large envelope of poorly lit
pictures and returned their deposit check.
She cried, and he lied. “They are not so
bad.” He said, but I knew that he was just
being nice.
That was the last photo session I ever
did for pay. Family life and career took
me in a different direction, but I never
gave up on being creative. Costumes
for the girls, bulletin board art for my
teacher wife, costumes for church plays,
By Charlie Sewell