Laughing at Your Own Jokes

I laugh at my own jokes all the time. I think that the most I can hope for is that other people think I'm half as funny as I think I am. I'll be doing well.

I designed the cover of the Gauntlet this week. I think that it looks really nice. I hope that it prints well. There are only about 15 covers that I really like over the last 2 years.

With the number of photos I take, you would think that I would get a lot more that I really think are quite good. In fact, quite the opposite is true. I find that I am really critical of the vast majority of my photos.

People around me all seem to think that all my photos are great (or at least way above average). While they are in all likelihood above average, there are very few that I would consider to be great, more that I enjoy looking at.

The real test for me is this. Would hang the photo on my wall. In most cases the answer is no. In fact, when I go to other people's houses, I wonder to myself how they could possibly hang some of the photos that they do. The only answer that I can come up with is that they are hanging the memory on the wall, not the photo. I on the other hand keep the memories in my album, and the pictures on wall.

I have a different standard for what I put on my wall, it must speak for itself. People must look at it an understand it out of context. The context is the killer for me. It is very likely that I have taken over 10,000 photos this year as photo editor at the Gauntlet, and up to 8,000 for the various years of photography before that. This means that every photo I take gets compared to the stock agency of over 18,000 images in my head.

My favorite ratio of favorite photos is, 1 for every 1800. Interestingly enough one of those 10 photos was taken somewhere in the middle of my first role with a non-point and shoot camera.

If I were to be completely honest, there are likely a lot more than ten photos that I really like, even enough to hang on my wall, but only 10 since I became a real person, and by real person I mean living on my own. Only 10 photos that I have in my possession, only 10 that I take complete credit for.

That being said, if you are in the Calgary area and need a good photographer, leave me a note. I do good work and I come inexpensively. I have a large portfolio and yes, I do to wedding photography. You will like my photos at least twice as much as I do.

-Gary Milner