Me, Myself and Eye

While I work in tech, my passion lies with photography. Shooting Bridal Veil Falls in Telluride Colorado

Unlike many, my path into photography did not start when I was young, or as the result of schooling.  

I was in Chicago having lunch with colleagues when my ex-wife called asking if I wanted some of our old photos.  After we talked I thought about the past eight years and realized I had almost no photos from this time.  No photos meant "no record of my history"…for eight years!

From that point on, I was determined to take photos of my family, friends and whatnot.  To rectify this, I hot-footed it to a local Bestbuy and bought my first 35mm camera.  Later that evening I started shooting what I had available to me in order to learn the ins and outs of the camera.  Little did I know I would soon start taking photographs of places and things rather than people, the indented purpose of buying the camera.

A couple years later I found myself with a brand new 3.2 mp Digital Camera with which I shot what I consider my first good photo - Frozen Tranquility.

My Work

At first photography for me was all about landscapes, but I've found over the years many different aspects of photography have crept in and influenced my work.  As of late, grit and grunge type scenes have been a focus.

I still shoot landscapes when I can always trying to obtain that perfect blue before dawn or after dusk.

Since photography is not my primary means to and end, I shoot what I can when I can.  This means I haven't masses of time to preplan shots.  I set out and "just do it".  This doesn't mean I don't have something in mind, it just means I'm more of an "on the fly" shooter.

Brooks Jensen, the editor of LensWork said it best - "I react emotionally and photograph."

My Process

The Nikon NEF RAW file is my Digital Negative, that is to say not a JPG file.  Unlike a JPG, RAW files need to be processed to achieve not only what I saw but what I am feeling at the time…what the scene says to me. Most point and shoot digital cameras normal operation is to save a JPG with a predetermined color balance, saturation, contrast etc.  A RAW file is the basic data from the light and these elements need to be added back in; i.e. processing.

I mention this as some people can be put off by what they think is digital manipulation.  In truth all digital photography is manipulated in one way or another. The camera interpolates what it sees and applies programmatic processing to the light before it's saved to the storage medium.  The only true unprocessed/manipulated/interpolated image is the one your eye sees.

My work-flow generally consists of dealing with contrast, adding tones to the image (dodge and burn) and finally sharpening.  I'm not one that will manipulate an image unless it's called for.  I try to achieve a natural image.

With some of my photos however, I use a process called HDR which is completed by using multiple exposures of the same shot and ton-mapped together.  HDR is a great tool to get the most tones from a high contrast scene and while some take it too far, I still prefer a natural shot and use the process to make the photo pop.