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of pictures, hundreds and I hundreds of pictures. "And I \ can remember almost everyone of them. Something must have snapped in my brain along with that shutter,” he said, laughing again.
While he wasn’t a ftill time student in a formal photographic program, Schmidt did attend seminars over the years. "I’d take a course, say in lighting, and then I’d do what I could with what j
I’d learned until I felt I | couldn’t go any further, then I’d take another course.” And as he progressed, he learned from other, more experienced photographers, < either as an apprentice in a \ portrait studio or just by j watching and listening.
“Photography is art as well as craft,” Schmidt maintained. “But knowing lenses, knowing film, knowing what you can do with in a lab, all help in the art.”
He believes there are three types of photographers: the photographer who catches what happened, the photographer who makes things happen and the photographer who asks what happened. “I’ve got a little bit of all three. Of the two, capturing and creating, I think you can learn how to create a moment. But you can’t learn how to catch a moment. That’s a gift.”
Business Grew
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When Schmidt actually began his fill] time photographic business, it was almost by accident. He was asked to take a couple of weddings, a couple of portraits, and then word of mouth did the rest. “It started to grow on its own,” Esther said, recalling the start of Franklin Photography. “We saw it would be something visable, something we could make a go of , so we gave it our complete attention.”
Recognition came quickly. Schmidt was named to the board of governors of the Virginia Professional Photographers Association and chosen as editor for the Association’s journal. He was awarded a number of blue ribbons, judged by his peer’s in the group’s annual photographic exhibitions. Currently, he’s aiming for certification as a Fellow of Photography, a designation that usually takes seven or eight years to earn through points awarded for prize winning photographs and instruction in seminars.
“That’s one measure of success,” Franklin said of the certification program.
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