Quinciañera

Last Saturday I was honored to photograph a Quinciañera ceremony at a church in Brooklyn, New York. A Quinciañera is the coming-of age-ritual held in some Latin American cultures of a girl's fifteenth's birthday, somewhat similar to a sweet sixteen celebration.

Being a father of a twelve-year-old daughter, I paid close attention to what unfolded before my eyes. A catholic mass was held in honor of the girl, she sat in a special chair right in front of the priest. At the end of the mass, both the mother and father performed the shoe and tiara ritual, signifying that their daughter was no longer a child, but a fully-grown woman.

I thought of my daughter Hannah, and three years from now, doing the same thing for her. While watching the parents in the audience witnessing the event, I imaged what was going through their minds: perhaps remembering the day when she was born, or when she learned how to walk, the first day in kindergarten, high school....

It was the last day of her childhood. Whatever they thought, it must have been very emotional indeed.

After the church, I accompanied the family to their home and took pictures of them and their loving guests. I took lots of pictures, and was impressed with with the love and harmony that surrounded me. It reminded me of the good things of life, of which, we often fail to acknowledge and fight for: closeness, love and harmony within our family. I had a great time.

Thanks for reading.

Hans.

Thinking Stuff

Becoming a full-time photographer requires a particular discipline, a sense of direction, and the desire and willingness to work hard in getting what is desired. Kind of like swimming against the current. It requires thinking.

It is true that no too many people practice the art of conscious thinking. What do I mean by that? Answering that question is the purpose of this post.

There are two kinds of thinking. The first one is the processing the information that is presented to us without any sort of effort in our part, like when we watch a movie. We see things and we come up with meanings and never question whether those decisions were right for us or not.

The second one is conscious thinking. Where we take everything that is presented, and examine all its details. Conscious thinking entails being awake and aware. It is the process of asking and answering questions.

By asking better questions, we can come up with answers that can empower us.

If you hate your job, instead of feeling sorry and waiting for things to change or somebody to quit or die (joke), ask yourself: what can I do to make this thing better? How can I get a better job? What sort of things can I do to move forward, etc. And wait and see, to your amazement, how everything that you needed to know comes up.

My question was, what I can do to make my career as a professional photographer a little bit more real?

One answer that came up was to file a fictitious business name, or "doing business as" It's just any sort of name other than your real name that you use to conduct business. To open a business checking account, banks need that little piece of paper. So last week, I went down to the court house and I filed for my fictitious name "The Golden Mile Productions" and this week I plan to open my first business account!

Thanks for reading.

Hans.