Like this palm tree seedling, this is the beginning of many things for me.
I’ve never done a blog before and I’m a newbie in the digital world. This is my first place to share thoughts and photos.
Never doing a blog before; I have no idea where to start. I guess I’ll start with some of my history. I have no formal training in photograph or writing. I’m not sure if anyone will have an interest in what I have to say or how I say it. Everything in my blog will be from what I have self-taught from hundreds, if not thousands, of tossed pictures.
I've been taking pictures for over forty years. It started with a 120 fixed lens viewfinder. Then I went to a 35mm Mamiya Sekor that allowed lens changes. This was a basic SLR camera that had no through the lens metering. It had a meter but it read light from the front of the camera. I didn’t know at the time that hand-held light meters existed. Oh yeah, I was that young and dumb.
What I learned with this camera was how to intuitively read the light and adjust the aperture to the shutter speed. With each picture I took I would write my meter readings, settings and frame number. I would adjust one variable and reshoot. Then I would look to see what the proper expose was. Later I learnt what I was doing was called bracketing. Soon, 30 or 40 rolls of 36, I was able to judge shutter speed and aperture if I was using a 50mm or 200mm lens.
It was at this time I entered the darkroom. I started with developing black & white. This is when I learned the importance of composition. I found it was easier to adjust my location, or lens change, when taking the picture than fix it in the darkroom. I learned the art of dodging, burning, and exposure adjustments.
Then I got a Canon AE-1. This increased my desire to do more so I upgraded the darkroom in my house to develop color prints. This is when I started learning about contrast between objects. Color made this more evident than black & white did.
Always being a little slow, about a year and a half ago I got a Canon 7d to enter the digital age. Don’t get a preconceived idea that I am nostalgic for film. Even if they had a camera that had all the features of a 7d, but with film, I would never go back. Digital brought another aspect of photography to learn. The basics are the same; it’s now much easier it make changes and adjustments. It’s great to see the results immediately. It’s nice not waiting to develop the roll to see if what you were trying capture actually happened. It’s also introduced me to video.
What do I see myself writing about in the future? I want to relate about my frustrations and excitement of digital. I hope to show what I’ve learned from film is still applicable in digital and how it’s different. I’m going to relate my experiences into digital before now and in the future. Far from an expert, I will give my "Average Joe" opinion of things.
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