 Photography,
equipment and a little bit of my experience with it....
I
found a book that explains quite a bit about me, "The
Tao of Photography" by Phillippe L. Gross and S.I Shapiro.
The contents support the subtitle which is "Seeing
Beyond Seeing." I have many things that make my life
worth living, but it just wouldn't be the same if I couldn't
do it with a camera in hand.
As
a young child growing up in a decidely non-photographic home,
I vividly recall each moment I used cameras. At 7, I completed
a photographic project using our family poloroid for a 4-H competiton.
I photographed kittens crawling about my brother's toy ambulance
and was intrigued by the new language I heard from the judge.
Comments on "composition", "use of color"
and "subject matter".
In 4th grade, before the time of color copiers....I used a teacher's
35mm to copy (GASP!) images from a book for my science project.
I was astounded at the clarity, the resulting images were nothing
like my mother's
Ektralite 110. It was a Pentax with multiple lens and wonderfully
silver. It made me feel important. When I was about 14, I got
in a lot of trouble wasting a whole roll of 110 film on a possum
playing dead.
So I didn't take many photos till I was 18 and on a trip to California
with my sister. She was out on her own and had a fully manual
35mm that she had photographed Europe with but still didn't know
what aperture and shutter speed was. That's alright, neither did
I at that time. At the top of a mountain, I found a tourist from
Finland who didn't speak English but figured out how to unlock
the camera so I could take a few shots. She also showed me how
to keep the light meter in the center. GREAT GOLLY!! When I got
the shots back (see
one here) , I started saving for my own 35mm. I figured getting
a goof-proof automatic would be the best bet....the Olympus Infinity
Super Zoom 300 . It cost more than my car (~$350) and I became
a photographer, still unaware of that shutter/aperture relationship.
I
started to get really frustrated with this automated wonder and
so I started researching...after 6 months and talking to countless
people and reading countless magazines (this was before the internet
came into my life) I purchased the Nikon 8008s and the SB24 speedlight
and a 35-70 lens. This camera is still in my bag and has more
than earned it's keep. However, it came with a huge manual full
of that gosh darn shutter/aperture stuff. I enrolled at WCC's
Photography Program.
Now,
things started to get serious and I was doing pretty well photographically
speaking. I dabbled in the many genres available and found pure
joy being able at last to control the camera and the image. When
I decided to get serious and began my business focusing on horses,
I researched again and purchased the Nikon f100 and the SB28 speedlight.
I also own a few zoom lenses, 80-200, 70-300 and 28-200 to round
out my needs and to get about the business of "Seeing Beyond
Seeing"
.
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