The grass underneath is cold and I am shivering. My arms are killing me because I am holding a camera lens that weighs over 10 pounds. I can’t help but think to myself, what am I doing here?
The answer is simple. I am photographing a soccer game for an article I am not even going to write, but this was an excuse for me to come out and use a long lens.
For all the very annoying things about photography – the heavy camera, constantly having to refocus my lens and change the setting, waiting to get the perfect shot only for it to be blurry – I secretly love it, so here I am on a Friday taking over a thousand pictures of soccer players.
When I started the journalism program in 2021, photojournalism was the last thing on my mind. As I picked up my camera for the first time, I was sure I was going to fail this course. I didn’t know what any buttons meant and I couldn’t begin to comprehend words such as ISO and shutter speed.
It felt like a cruel joke. I came to the journalism program to write, not take pictures. The first week was rough, really rough. All my pictures came out blurry and it wasn’t until a few weeks later that my professor informed me that my lens wasn’t in focus.
Halfway through the first semester, our professors gave us our first real assignment, to go outside and take various pictures of people, structures and animals. I dreaded the assignment but I am stubborn and was not ready to give up. So, I took my little brother with me and began taking pictures around my neighbourhood.
To my surprise, I had fun posing my brother and finding beautiful things to photograph. Not only that, but the pictures came out looking beautiful! Well, beautiful for my skill set.
From the first photoshoot. By: Myriam Landreville
My brother, Noah. By: Myriam Landreville
From my first photoshoot. By Myriam Landreville
Just like that, I was hooked. I wanted to photograph everything and find new, creative ways to express something. Photography assignments give me an excuse to go out and take as many pictures as I want of what I want.
Don’t get me wrong, I won’t miss the assignment deadlines and the stress of waiting to find out if I got a good mark. But I will miss being able to photograph so much.
Who knows, maybe I will find an excuse to photograph even after I graduate. After all, a good picture is just a click away.
