Sunday, September 13, 2015

Perceptions, Misconceptions and Realities... The Journey Begins Here!

Welcome to my blog!  As a photographer trying to breakout in the industry, I plan to share some of my photos and experiences with my readers and some of the things that I encounter throughout my journey.  I have always had a passion for photography and taking what I always thought were really great photographs for many years.  Growing up in the South provides many amazing photo opportunities with all of the beauty that can be found along the Gulf Coast, and I always had my trusty camera phone ready to capture a beautiful image.  Facebook became my digital media landing spot, where you will always find friends ready to give you a pat on the back and "like" the beautiful moments you captured with your phone.  This lures one into a false sense of photography skills because, let's face it, in this day and age nearly all of modern society has a camera phone and, well, doesn't that make all of us photographers???  Validation from Facebook friends and family just encourages you to think that you have the skill set to become the next Ansel Adams or Henri Cartier-Bresson.  Taking a nice picture of a beautiful sunset, or changing a good picture taken downtown and changing it to black and white, surely means that you have mastered the art of photography.  I love black and white photography, in particular.  The changes to a captured image by adding heavier contrast to the black and white images can make such a dramatic change and change the emotions connected to viewing that image.

It wasn't until I acquired my first real Canon camera and started reading the 500+ page PDF file about how to use that camera, and the features that it offered, that I realized that taking great photos was far more involved than aiming at your subject and clicking a button.  That was a huge misconception, and I soon realized that taking a great picture with a camera phone was luring me into a false sense of photography skills and that I needed academic help to get on the road to fulfilling my life's dream.  I enrolled in classes at a local university, downloaded hundreds of hours of videos from many different sites, read books and signed up with many different sites to gain as much knowledge as I could. Aperture, shutter speeds, light, exposure, composition, white balance, ISO, F-stops???  Far from just picking up a camera and pushing a button.  So, I've been on my educational journey for the past year, absorbing all that I can, trying to be the best that I can in a field that I love.  I'm an information seeker, so I enjoy learning all that I can and fitting all of the pieces together.  Is this a challenge?  You bet!  Am I excited each time I get that ah-ha moment when it all seems to click?  Absolutely!  Photos should tell a story, invoke emotion, make you feel... that's what my goal is.  I want to capture great images and make the viewer pause for a moment and just feel whatever it is they feel when they look at my images.  What it makes the viewer feel will vary according to their perception, and that is great!

My journey is just getting underway... I've learned a lot, but there is always room for more knowledge.  Every day is a learning experience.  New ideas, new information, new places to photograph, a new adventure.  I hope you will follow along while I share my experiences, photographs and special moments.

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