This post was written in July of 2014, and was written about Emily as she was going to take photos for the black belt exam. Now in 2017 Emily is still interested in photography and taking photos. She's taken photos at several of our events and classes here at Hidden Sword.
Today will
be our second black belt exam at our school, and it will be a big day for all
of us. We have four students testing for
1st black, and three testing for 2nd brown. Likewise, what I teach and how I teach will
be graded or evaluated by outside instructors who know me but don’t really know
my students. My daughter Emily, will
also be put to a test, but a test of a different sort as she will be our
photographer for the event.
Emily is as
old as most of the students testing for black belt and while she is young for
the task that is set before her, she has, like her peers testing I believe, risen
to the challenge. Those students all
had to make choices about testing; did they want to work hard, did they want to
practice, did they practice when they didn’t want to but knew they should, did
they listen to the instructions I gave them in class, and did they apply those
instructions in their practice of the martial arts. Emily had to do the same with her photography
but with only a week’s notice.
Emily has
taken pictures for us (me) before, but it has always been just for fun, she
enjoyed it and I never knew what I would get out of it. She wasn’t serious and I didn’t take to
seriously instructing her on it. That
changed this week.
Leilani practicing bunkai from her nunchaku kata |
The next
morning we spent another couple of hours going over what she shot; we just sat
down at the computer and discussed what made a good photo; composition,
lighting, focus, and how to get it. That
night she spent 4 and ½ hours shooting my classes.
Kimberly taking the stick away from Julia |
Hunter and Bryce practicing self defense |
Thursday we
spent more time with the camera shooting during the day and
while I taught Crea’,
then that evening we applied what we were told by taking off the automatic
modes to full creative mode where she had to adjust the camera while she shot (in
order to solve the lighting issue) and her pictures improved. She again spent 3 ½ hours taking pictures of
the students over the course of the night.
Another application for the spear hand? No just Kate being Kate always lending a hand |
Emily isn’t a pro photographer, she is only a beginner. She was trained to do one thing for this big day for our school. However like the students testing today, she had a passion (she enjoys taking pictures), she learned about the subject, she practiced and applied what she learned. Like the students testing for black belt and brown belt today, I am proud of her for stepping up to the task and for all of the hard work she has done getting ready.
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