For Real, For Real: A History, And An Open Letter to All of My Friends -by Cathleen Gillingham

I have been hanging around with cameras for a very long time.

In high school, photography became a very serious hobby. I had my own darkroom in the basement, and undoubtedly took thousands of black and white photos in those days. I wound my own unexposed film into 35m cans back then in the late 70s.

I wish I knew where all of those negatives were, and as far as the photos that came from them, most of them were given to people who asked for them. Their logic was that I could just make myself another one. A lot of people don't understand how much goes into creating a photograph, but I gave the photos away anyway. Hopefully, the person who has all of those black and white negatives somehow reads this, and they are returned to me. If not, what I don't remember doesn't always hurt me.

I found that the same thing would happen with the color photos that I processed after I no longer had access to a place where I could develop my own negatives and photos, and so I eventually began ordering doubles so people could have what they wanted. I've always been about sharing my work.

And then digital cameras were born!

I have been shooting digital for 17 years.  I acquired my first digital while attending a certification program for visual communications at Gibbs College. It was awesome! Unlimited photos! No film! No chemicals! No mess! It was a miracle.

But, it was also a burden, because I'm a serial shooter, and I just took shot after shot after shot...

As you can imagine, I have hundreds of thousands of photos in my archives. Negatives, prints, digital images. Movies. Birthdays. Bridal showers. Weddings. Baby showers. Newborn photos. Christmas parties. Work. Street. Everywhere. Everything. Everyday, Every day. If you've seen me at a party, I probably have photos of it.

I think what a lot of people don't understand is that finding photos, labeling them, sorting them, archiving them, editing them, uploading them, and sharing them takes a great deal of time. Everybody wants to see the photos I took, but there's a huge time factor involved.

​"Cathy, did you ever develop those photos from my birthday?"
"Cathy, where are the photos from the retirement party?".
"Cathy, could you take photos for me and then just send them to me?"

I could create a list of steps necessary to produce and share an album, but that's time consuming, and I have to get ready to visit John where he's rehabbing after his hip surgery. Poor baby.

My brand of photo processing and editing is a lot of time-consuming work that requires a specific skill set.  I financed my own college education for digital communications and editing at the turn of the century (I love to use that phrase), and also currently enrolled at Pace University for a certification in digital photography and Photoshop. I cannot even begin to tell you how invaluable the information is that I have so far received here. It will make me very employable.

But there within lies the conundrum.

How am I to sort, edit, label, etc. and share all of my photos with everyone if I do not have the time to do it because work and life get in the way? I am not employed right now at any specific place because I want to start my own business of creating photo books and oversized pieces of art for sale, and have returned to school to learn as much as I can. My hopes are that in September I will be able to take classes in digital illustration again.

In the meantime, it's shooting, homework, and creating. I've also begun posting to LinkedIn; I think it's worth my while to try to make some contacts outside of healthcare.

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