I made my first meaningful photograph when I was 13. I had no idea what I was doing, but I happened to use a slow shutter speed as I panned to follow my dad driving down the main straight at Hallet Motor Raceway in northern Oklahoma. The car was sharp and the background blurred due to the low shutter speed gave a sense of speed that made the photograph more interesting than it would have otherwise been. That picture, as a 20x30” hangs in my parent’s house to this day (34 years later).

Subsequent to that picture, I’ve made a horrid number of really bad photographs, meaningless drivel. I’ve played with composition, shutter speed, aperture, light, and tone. I’ve photographed bushes, bananas, tress, mountains, deserts, cats, dogs, girlfriends and zoo animals. Amongst the many failures, I made a few images worth keeping, but more importantly, I learned a skillset.

That skillset was given a meaning when I began photographing my own family. I look at the photographs I make of my kids and wife, and they have meaning. They have meaning because my heart is in each and every photograph. I love spending time with my kids as they explore, grow and express with an uninhibited nature that is only found in the young.

The lesson, without heart and emotional investment, my images are meaningless. My photographs now have meaning, and that makes me happy. Perhaps another lesson may be that the reward of the work put into building a skillset may only be realized in the future. Maximize the moment but don’t forsake the long view.