 I began making photographs late in the film era, learning the mechanics on a Minolta SLR. Transitioning to digital in 2001, I have been an avid amateur photographer ever since, favoring landscape / seascape and wildlife photography…but I’ll photograph just about anything. Today I’m among the few still shooting with a DSLR – rarer still, I’m using Pentax bodies. While I’d love to upgrade, I can’t justify replacing a system that’s working well for me. Photography is not about the tech, but seeing and connecting with our surroundings. | I currently manage photography field trips for both CPS and NGPC, a role I enjoy as much for the comradery with fellow photographers as I do for collecting new images. I also make longer trips, sometimes with my sweet bride, and the camera always comes along. Philosophically, while I’m not married to strict “realism” in photography, I’m not a fan of composite images, where some element was added from a different photo. No judgment – just not my thing. I do believe a photographer should own their entire process – from planning to capturing to post-processing. And I capture in RAW format because jpegs are grossly manipulated by the camera’s firmware, with gobs of data stripped out. Why let some program make my artistic choices? To quote Ansel Adams, “you don’t take a photograph, you make it.” |
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