Holding myself back!

I’m not sure if it’s part of my Tourette’s or the OCD, but I sometimes feel I am holding myself back from the career that I want. I have a full-time job where I work in photography and computers, not always the subject that I want to photography, but isn’t that the same with any other job. Could it be that I am sabotaging my career because I don’t want to hear or explain about my twitching to a new group of people?

I know now. More people know what Tourette’s basically is. Then when I was growing up. It hasn’t really stopped me from learning and developing my photography, art or computer skills. But it has made me more shy in some ways. Now, people who know me will say I’m not shy. But I feel shy and unless I really have to go up to new people and make nice. I rather stay home with my dog, then met new people.

I guess I’m worried that my plans won’t turn out how I want, that it will pass me by as I get older. Co-workers are going the extra mile and getting the photography that they want. Even getting noticed by others or at least talked about. Maybe because I play the down low, laid back kind of person, people don’t think I could use some praised or even care.

Yes, I have Tourette Syndrome and I am a photographer

This blog will be about being a photographer and having Tourette Syndrome. I will try to discuss what it is like living with Tourette’s and the choices that I made as a photographer. I hope to connect to my fellow photographers that have Tourette’s and build a community where we can all help each other. I am in the process of setting up a Flickr page to show our work to each other. Where we can comment on each other’s images in a safe environment.

A little about me. At the time of this writing, I am fifty-nine years old, and a professional photographer. Ever since I was given my first camera back when I was only eight years old, I have been hooked on photography. Always into the arts, drawing, watercolor, but after the first camera, I was pulled into photography. I didn’t want to do anything else with my life.

My Tourette’s started at an even earlier age, my family and I did not know exactly what it was, but they new I had a problem. As I grew older, we expected it was Tourette Syndrome, but no doctor would confirm the condition. It wasn’t till I was working in a forensic photography studio a couple of years, did I finally get my confirmation that my repetitive movements and unwanted thoughts and sounds, also called tics, was actually Tourette Syndrome.

My blog will explore what Tourette Syndrome is and how it affected my career and choices as a photographer. I hope to learn from others about this condition as I hope to teach others about my condition.

Where you can find information on Tourette Syndrome

Tourette Syndrome (TS) is not a common ailment, a condition that many people, including doctors, have run across. When I was a child, few doctors or medical personal actually knew what it was. When I was in high school, myself and my parents thought it was Tourette’s but no one would confirm it. I even had a psychologist when I was in the sixth grade and that is one of the reason I believe TS is a chemical in-balance and genetic. The psychologist did nothing for me.

In college I went to the doctors at the University of Rochester to see if they could determine what I had. After all the tests, they concluded it was from a fall that I had as a child. I fell down the stairs leading to the basement in my parents’ house and had a bump on the left side of the head. They said my droopy left eye was confirmation of what happen to me.

My doctors finally confirmed TS at Kaiser Permanente after I reached thirty-two or thirty-three and placed on a series of medications that I am still on. There has been a slight change over the years and several other medicines added to help me control the motor tics, audio tics, and OCD issues. I’m thrilled with what I received from Kaiser and the amount of control I have over my TS.

One thing I find annoying is that people try to associate their issues with TS. Is this concern action, part of TS. Can I blame this social irregularly on to TS. I guess people just don’t know what is TS and what isn’t TS, or what they associate with TS. I am originally from the western part of Pennsylvania and found an organization that handles Tourette Syndrome and issues related to TS. It’s called PATSA and on the web here,

https://patsainc.org/tourette-info/after-the-diagnosis-of-tourette-syndrome/.

They have a wonderful PDF on the subject which is found here,

https://patsainc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/PATSA-PrimerBrochure_pr2.pdf.

They have a common symptoms sheet that is very useful in determining if some symptom is a part of TS.

https://patsainc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Symptom-Sheet-final-2020.pdf.

Most of the information is for children, because TS starts when you are before five years old, and might end by the time the child starts college. What most groups don’t talk about is people who have TS still when they are adults. My symptoms never really went away as some groups claim, but became worst during my thirties and I still have them today, thirty years later.

Just had my 60th birthday

It might be a bad idea to date yourself, but I just had my 60th birthday on Monday.  I have been thinking about my imagery that I have taken since I was about 8 years old.  Of course my idea of what makes an image has changed over the years, just like my writing skills have improved, I hope.  

I was talking to one of my clients; she is also my mother-in-law, and she is also a long-time real estate agent. She told me I need to study images from homes that sold more than a million dollars on the market.  She says that my work as a photographer is fabulous and I have a high level of skill.  She also states that’s not good enough to work in real estate as a photographer, taking excellent pictures is not enough.  You need to think like a realtor in selling the house when you are taking the pictures.

She says I need to photography the homes to produce images that the realtor needs to visually sell the house.  Even in this industry, you have to be a visual storyteller.  Is it not enough to just take technically quality images of a house, follow standard design elements and make the building shine, at least by how I have trained.

You need to make a story with your images, like how a realtor writes the description to sell the property.  It’s not your job, but the homeowner and the realtor. But you still have to make sure they have cleaned the place and staged before you take the first image.  Highlight key areas of the house in your images that people want to see.  Dishwasher, stove, Washer and Drier.  Key elements that accent the house and make it different from the average house.

She asked me to study the images from homes that sell for more than a million dollars.  You always should study your contemporaries.  I didn’t think there are that many homes that sell over a million, but in the DC/VA/MD area, it’s more common than you think.  It’s where the residential realtor can make some, similar to the commercial market.  That’s where I really want to work in.  

Why do I like to work in the commercial architecture market?  Like photographers Ezra Stoller and Julius Shulman.  It’s a mixture of technical and artistry, showing human culture that benefits humanity.  I also think that it’s more cut and dry for being paid.  That’s the bottom line, trying to make a living and helping others with my photography.

Finally able to fly my drone on a job.

Living in the DC, Virginia and Maryland area is a tough National Air Space to work in. We have many airports, helipads, restricted spaces and of course the no great fly zone for the DC area. The DC area no-fly zone, covers more than the District of Columbus, and we have multiple military bases that have their own no flight zones to boot.

I finally had a request to fly my drone in a Class B area that permitted flying below the 400 foot level. Which is the maximum height a 107 commercial drone Pilot can fly up too. My client wanted both daylight and twilight photography showing off the pool and lighting around the house.

Now, to say I was a little scared of flying a drone that I never flew before, because I was always in restricted space, had me going. The first daylight flight went off without a hitch, but the twilight gave me a little trouble.

My compass was off, which is an easy fix, if the software program would let you. The application became fixated on the message bubble telling me of the issue. One thing I found out that night was, the drone would still fly and let me take pictures. It was hard to see pasted the message, but I could accomplish the mission.

You ask me, why didn’t I just stop and correct the compass by doing the compass dance with the drone, well, I was to press for time. My window of opportunity for the best, ambient lighting to house lighting, was coming up on the end of my flight permission with the FAA.

Driving home, I was concern that I didn’t get the pictures, but I did and I just found out the house owners loved the aerial drone images that I took.