Mentor

 

When my photography journey rekindled back in 2015 with a trip to Maine, I never knew how far I would come and how important pushing a button on a camera would be. I have come a long way, but still have so much more to learn.

A mentor is described as an experienced and trusted adviser (noun). Also, as someone who will advise or train (someone, especially a younger colleague) (verb). Wikipedia also states mentorship is the patronage, influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. Since I have gotten more serious about my photography, I have been looking for a mentor that fits these categories listed above.

Seeking guidance, I reached out to a handful of “professional” photographers to inquire about mentorship. I received no response from one person, another person casually mentioned that they rarely mentor, and a third person kindly explained that they couldn’t invest their time in mentoring me. Faced with more rejections, I decided to handpick my own mentor, determined to learn from them regardless of whether they accepted or not.

After years of observing his work, I chose my friend Mark to be my mentor. Not sure exactly what this mentorship will entail, or if he will even accept it, but my personal criteria for choosing a mentor fits him perfectly.

I wanted someone who was more experienced than me in photography. Mark shot film long before I ever picked up a camera. He then transitioned over to digital, whereas I took a break from shooting film in 1986 until my rebirth into digital in 2015. Mark is 70 years old; he has 14 more years of life experience, and as I mentioned, decades more in photography experience.

Finally, Mark has always been apt to tell me when my photos were ace, rubbish, or needed to be shot differently. For example, I love monochrome (black and white), yet Mark loves color. As a result, I have shot more color than I wanted to or felt comfortable with. It is part of a learning process for me.

The advice doesn’t end there. He has talked me out of buying certain camera gear, questioned my decisions of selling certain gear, and even talked me into going to or attending functions I didn’t really want to go to. Even advising on what gear I should take with me when I go to these events.

A recent discussion with Mark solidified that my choice was the correct one to make him my mentor. Mark is on multiple social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, to name a few. He posts often and has quite a bit of interaction with his friends/followers on these sites. The exception is his lack of posting on Threads. Of these three, I am only active on Threads and haven’t posted on Facebook or Instagram since 12.31.23. After listening to his direction, I will now post on Instagram again and Facebook and occasionally limit my posting on Threads.

My photography will be predominantly color over black and white from now on. I will accept I need to carry multiple cameras with me, and my subjects of photographs will also shift to things I rarely shoot like waterfalls, shoot from the car, and random people on the street.

I highly suggest that you follow Mark on the social media links below to see the reason I admire his work and witness the type of imagery I hope to capture someday. I hope my images live up to his someday. In the meantime, I will learn and grow from him and try to better myself each time I shoot.

Until next time,

Tim

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/mark.wilcoxson.3?mibextid=ZbWKwl

Instagram – www.instagram.com/deermark

 

P.S. The shot above was one Mark kindly referred to as rubbish. Stating something to the effect, he could not see a focal point in it.