As far back as I can remember, photography was a part of my life. As a boy, I never really did anything beyond some snapshots with my little Kodak instamatic - you know, the silver and black one with the little single-use flash cubes - but as someone who didn’t have drawing or painting ability (and by and large still doesn’t), it allowed me to get my art fix.
In college, things changed. My college roomate Dave’s parents gave him a Nikon camera for his high school graduation. Shortly after arriving at school, he joined the college newspaper as a photographer, and ultimately became the photo editor.
Possibly by peer pressure, or possibly not, I started photographing for the newspaper as well, after buying a Nikon. I eventually became the paper’s photo editor, as well as photo editor for the campus literary magazine and yearbook.
Fast forwarding to my post-college years I continued to shoot off and on, but my interest waned because of the hassle involved in shooting film – its cost, buying it, storing it, developing it, and keeping track of negatives and slides. In fact, for a number of years my film gear sat in a bag in my closet, taking a back seat to my Sony digital point and shoot.
A Life Changing Experience
In 2002, Nikon announced a digital camera that at about $2000 was almost affordable. Within six months, the price dropped to about $1500 and I decided to purchase one. Without a doubt, this purchase was one of the most important purchases in my life, not because the camera was great (it wasn’t), but because it rekindled my enjoyment of photography.
With a digital SLR, I was finally able to experiment without having to be concerned of using too much film, or having to deal with film’s limitations. If I didn’t like an image, I simply deleted it. I could change ISO speeds without having to worry about shooting the rest of the roll first. I could shoot under various lighting conditions without having to have special film or filters to color balance the image.
Having a completely digital darkroom, I no longer had to give someone my images to print – I now had complete control over my work from beginning to end. I could see my results (but on a D100′s small screen not very well) immediately and could make changes in the field to get the image the way I wanted it to be. No more crossing my fingers and hoping for the best – I knew what I was getting the moment that image came up on my camera’s monitor.
I finally had a photographic tool that fit me and my style of shooting.
I held on to my film cameras for a number of years after I “went digital”, but they continued to sit in a bag in my closet. A couple of years ago, with some guilt that I was in a sense throwing away my past, I put them up on Ebay and sold them. Even with this twinge of guilt, I don’t see myself shooting another roll of film for the rest of my life.
Digital changed my photographic life.
This Website
I hope to share some of my work through this website and discuss what I like, or in some cases don’t like, about particular images I’ve made. I also plan on writing about topics in photography that interest me, such as what my motivations are, why I shoot the way I shoot, why I shoot what I shoot, and how I personally use color and form in my work. I don’t know the answers to these questions, but this self-analysis should be a learning experience for me, and hopefully for visitors to this site as well. Over time, I’ll also write about photographers I like and admire, places I’ve been or would like to go to, and many other things.
I don’t plan on making this site a gear-oriented site, so if that’s what you are looking for, you probably won’t find it here. With that said, at some point I probably will discuss what I like about my gear and how it helps me make the images I like to make, but certainly don’t expect full-blown reviews here – there are many other sites on which to find that information.
I sincerely hope you enjoy the site.