Let me just start with this because what it says below is exactly how I approach photography, which is my work, my art, my craft, my passion, my outward expression of visions and emotions that simply cannot be expressed with words:
“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” -Cecil Beaton
This is more than a “job” for me. It’s my passion.
My passion shows every time I walk onto a location to shoot. I just get in my zone and get to work doing what I love to do.
I picked up my first camera around 1966 (I was 6 years old). I remember that it was a Kodak Instamatic 110 with this REALLY cool flash cube thingy on the top. I had a blast with that camera! It didn’t matter what the pictures looked like when they were developed of course. The fun part was just pointing the camera at people. When I did that, they performed for me in some way! Sometimesa nice smile, sometimes a goofy facial expression coupled with odd body contortions, sometimes with protest and admonishment. It didn’t matter to me, I was hooked!
Well, I grew up (sort of!). Went to college, then went into the US Air Force. In working for the USAF, my career field was heavily computer oriented, back when computers were so big they had their own zip codes. I had always picked up the odd photo job along the way. But, I never liked taking “snap shots”, I’d always be experimenting with this or that. Ordinary pictures never did much for me. The fun was taking them. Manipulating light any way I could with whatever I could find to do what I wanted. (ps: don’t take down the shower curtain to use as a reflector on a windy day, it could end badly).
Many millions of pictures of later, I discovered digital and got my first digital camera around 10 years ago. It was a Kodak DC???. With my graphics design and computer background, having a digital camera was like the cave man discovering fire for me. I no longer had to develop film, have the negatives scanned, mailed to me, put onto disc, upload to the computer, into photoshop. I could take the frame, and all those steps in between the camera and photoshop disappeared.
I like to run around 40 miles a week these days to stay in shape and to participate in weekly road races which I really enjoy. (it also helps in keeping up with the rigors of documenting a wedding day)
The photos are all recent. One is a recent self portrait. Camera on a tripod, one flash behind me and one bungee corded to my face under the lamp shade. Remote cable release in my hand. One of me running, another at the Chrysler on the job, and still another just goofing around with some lighting.
