Instead of diving into camera, photo industry shop talk, I thought I would talk a little about myself. Contrary to my post title, I have a very modest ego. I do what I do, because I love what I do. The dream of being a glamorous world famous photographer left me years ago. Hopefully this blog will allow me to share my ideas, techniques and problems with others. I learned photography by looking at what others produced and then analyzing how they did it. Simple problem solving. I guess that's what I love about photography is the opportunity to solve problems. So here we go!
I started my photographic journey when I was in college. I was going on all sorts of journeys around the American southwest. When I came home and tried to tell my friends and family of all the cool things that we did and saw, I never could really convey how cool it really was. That's because I'm pretty much a crappy storyteller. Half the time I can't remember half the details that make a story meaningful. Either way, being a visually stimulated person, I thought a camera would be a cool way to show our journeys. And a career was born.
I bought a Canon A2 with some sort of zoom lens and started shooting... a lot of bad photos. I actually picked up photo books and read all I could about the basics of photography. That was the technical side of my education. Each evening, I would go to the library and pour over National Geos and study photography. That was more the aesthetic side of my education. I dissected images to determine how the photo was made. I then would go out and try to replicate photos that I admired. That has been my method of education to this day.
If you've gotten this far, you've been to my site and see what kind of work I do. The outdoor stuff is what I've been doing from day one. I love it, but I will admit that I have stepped back from it a bit in the last few years. I found that work and play became one. Every time I went out for a bike ride or hike, I was toting cameras to get the shot and I never really took time off from my job. I pulled back from the outdoor photography and concentrated more on architecture and now environmental portraiture. Architecture is something I have always loved. I actually wanted to be an architect when I was in high school, but I never followed through with that dream. Now I am blessed to have the opportunity to visit and work in very cool homes and see all forms of architecture. The portraiture is exciting because I get to meet all sorts of people and visit new different locations. Then I get the opportunity to visually connect people with their surroundings or environments. I haven't let go of outdoor photography. I have a feeling that a new exciting project is not to far off. That's the beauty of photography. We get to shoot what we want to shoot when we want to shoot it. I'm really pretty lucky.
Yes, I love to ride bikes. I've been riding a bike since I was 2? All I know, is as long as I can remember, my butt's been one with a bike seat. My dad used to yell at me when I was young and my grades were bad. He would ask, "What are you gonna do? Ride your bike up and down the street all your life?" Yep. I'm still riding my bike up and down the street. Sorry dad, I love cycling. It's the one place in the world that nobody can tell me what to do and how to do it. It's the one place where I can really, truly be myself and I'm absolutely in my realm. I love it.
Well, that's about all for now. I guess I could go on, but readers would probably get bored. If you've made it this far, I thank you for taking an interest in me and what I do. I'm excited to post stories of my shoots, my trials, my business, my failures and successes. It is my turn to contribute my experience and hopefully others will benefit in some way.
Cheers
No comments:
Post a Comment