Question 7

What is it like having two photographers in the house?  What are the pros and cons?  Do you both end up taking photographs of the same things? Do you compete against each other?

Judy:  “It is great having two photographers in the house.  We are both interested in travelling, photography, supporting photography, and it is something we can share together – which is wonderful.  We are both very supportive of each other and encouraging of each other.  If I am having trouble with something technical, Jim is very good at explaining it to me; and, I am able to share how I see things and what I am learning about the art side of photography with Jim.  So, actually, our interests and our strengths compliment each other.  It has been very good for us.

I don’t really see any cons.  Jim and I are very fortunate that we are both passionate about photography and learning; as a result, it has not created any cons for us – so far.

We do not end up necessarily taking photographs of the same things.  We see things differently.  Our focus is a little bit different as Jim will often go one way and I will go the other.  Occasionally, we will take the same photograph but that doesn’t happen very often.

Regarding competing against each other, we don’t really do that.  I think that has a lot to do with the fact that we don’t take photographs of the same things.  We can go out to a location and come home and have different pictures.  So, it doesn’t really cause us a problem when it comes to competing.  There have really only been two photographs that we had that were similar and that we both wanted to enter in a competition; but, we are both respectful of each others work.  For example, if the competition is on windows and Jim has a similar window, Jim will defer to me because he knows that that is something that I focus on mostly.  There was an occasion where I took a shot of a bird, but birds are not really my thing, so I deferred to Jim.  So, we really have not had any competition problems.

All in all, I would say that it has been a really positive experience for us and I am really grateful that it is something that we can share together.”

Jim:  “It is great having two photographers in the house.  I think one of the best pros to having two photographers is that it is a constant source of topics for discussion.  We are constantly talking about one aspect or another of photography.  Another pro, is that neither one of us ends up becoming a photography widow.  When one person wants to go out and shoot, there is always another person to go.  So you always have someone else to go out with and share your experience of taking photographs.  Additionally, I would say that photography is almost synonymous with travel for us and it means that a lot of the times we want to go to the same places because there are photographic opportunities there.

As far as cons are concerned, I think the only con I can think of is that when you have two photographers it means that you need two of everything.  So, two camera bodies, two zoom lenses, two wide angle lenses, two fish eye lenses, 6 flashes, two computers.  I mean it doubles the cost for everything that we need to own.  But, beyond that, I can’t think of any cons with respect to having two photographers in the same house.

With regards to taking photographs of the same thing, we often take pictures of the same things but we take them differently.  So, we will go out to Peggy’s Cove and I will be taking pictures of the lighthouse and Judy will be taking pictures of the lighthouse but often you will not even know that we were at the same place at the same time.  The light will be different, the perspective will be different.  What she sees and what I see is completely different.  There is the odd occasion where we get the same shot but we both defer to each other for what our interests are. So, if it happens to be architectural I will back off and if it happens to be landscape or nature, Judy will back off. That is essentially how we handle it.

And, do we compete against each other?  We compete frequently in the same competitions and we may even be using photographs from the same place but they are usually so different that it makes do difference when we compete.”

Here are a few examples of our work from the same location and how we each experienced it.

Judy Hardiman