Where I've Been
A little background on my photo journey–as the kids say/used to say.
I’ve dabbled in photography throughout my life, starting in the mid 1980s when Burger King included small cameras in its equivalent of a Happy Meal. I think they were 110s, and I remember in fourth or fifth grade everyone having them and bringing them to school to take photos at recess.
My next major camera memory was in college, when I had to shoot events for the school yearbook. We were still shooting on film, and I had no idea what I was doing. I was the co-editor-in-chief, and I had thought I’d mostly write and do layout. But we were often short on photographers, so we all pitched in.
Since we were shooting on film, I didn’t know what my photos looked like until we got them back from the developer. I remember worrying about the photos from the minute I mailed the film rolls until I got the photos back in a few days. I never screwed anything up, thankfully, and even took some decent photos. But–a recurring theme here–I sometimes doubt my abilities.
And then 10 or 12 years later, we all had cameras in our pockets thanks to cell–and then smart–phones.
My iPhone camera became a constant companion in 2020, when photography was a way to get outside and cope with the stress of the pandemic and general chaos of 2020.
Late that year I got my first real camera, a Canon Rebel (the photo above is one of the first I took using it; it's Provincetown Harbor in Massachusetts just after sunset). I used a bonus I got from work to buy it, and I wasn’t sure if photography was just a passing interest–so I felt like maybe I was wasting my money.
But, happily, photography became a steady hobby, and then a habit, and eventually part of my identity. Soon I added a Nikon z7ii to my equipment lineup, and I started shooting mostly on that given that it can take very high resolution photos. Plus it’s mirrorless, which means I could shoot in lowlight settings (the light here is almost always spectacular during the day, but especially just before sunrise and just after sunset).
Three years after getting that Canon Rebel, I have this website and 9,900 other photos that aren’t on it! Photography is now a big part of my life and identity, and one of things I love best about it is sharing it with others. So thanks for coming to the site and taking time to read this (and that's me below; I'm in an airplane at the Palm Springs Air Museum in California, in early 2022).
