A Nostalgic Fearlessness

DA* 16-50 Giveaway Entry #12

By Heie in It's Good to Be Fearless on Apr 21, 2013

OK, well here goes. First of all the topic, "It's good to be FEARLESS," has several meanings for me. The first is even entering this contest. 

I generally don't enter any type of photography contest because I usually convince myself that my pictures aren't good enough. I've been interested in photography since my dad gave me my first camera, a Pentax Spotmatic F. From that moment I was almost never without my camera. I was always the guy at all the parties taking pictures. I always thought of my pictures as "Snapshots" not true photography. I went to Savannah College of Art & Design as a photography major and really fell in love with photography. I also saw that maybe I did have some talent taking pictures. Due to money issues I did not stay at SCAD long and instead entered the Navy. I still had my Spotmatic F and even picked up a few lenses for it. But while in the Navy I never really made the time to take my photography seriously and certainly didn't make myself shoot every day.

After the Navy I started a family and jumped into the job force, again never making the time to rekindle my love of photography. After a brief stint with a Canon Rebel (I know, what was I thinking?) after the birth of my first son I went back to taking pictures frequently, but again considered it mostly snapshots of family and friends. Its now almost 30 years since my college days and I recently picked up a Pentax K-X . Time to stop worrying about whether my pictures are good enough and jump in! I participated in the recent Pentax World Day event and am really trying to shoot something every day. They may not be up to par with some of the other submissions but I'm not going to let that stop me.

That being said, when I saw the topic of the contest, the first thing that came to mind was a trip I took while on leave from the Navy back in Washington State, USA in the Spring 1990. I was in much better shape back then (my physical prime), and I went on a rock climbing excursion near Mt. Rainier and took along my Spotmatic F along with an Auto Vivitar 135mm F3.5. I apologize I don't have the technical details on these pictures. I'm pretty sure I was shooting Kodak 400 ISO film. The base store never seemed to have anything better. Regardless, the trip was amazing, the weather was perfect, and the view from our climb was beautiful.

I remember taking the lead so I could get some good shots of the others climbing up behind me. I was truly fearless that day: I really believe I climbed well above my normal level and with a camera bag strapped to my back to boot! Looking down from our highest point I remember thinking WOW that little square down there is actually a house!. I shot 72 pictures that day and it was hard to pick three to enter in this contest. I tried to pick the ones that best fit the topic. The last is my favorite as one of the climbers helps his young son.

One last thing, the whole digital processing of images is completely new to me. I scanned these into Lightroom from negatives. The negatives were not in the best shape but I'm going for more on topic and content than technical beauty. I hope as I get more familiar with Lightroom I will be able to clean up my scanned-from-negative images more successfully. I don't know where the meta data came from and I'm not sure I re-sized them properly to fit the rules of posting here. Either way, I'm back and committed to finding the time to enjoy photography for myself. I appreciate the opportunity to have others look at my work and give feedback.

- dbad