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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
01-25-2009, 01:00 PM
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There is nothing like photography and I love to practice it. I bought Nikons for thirty years -- first to document my childrens' lives, then to shoot thousands of slides in museums as a scholar and teacher. I began to let them rest several years ago, and started using smaller and less challenging cameras, especially when they provided simple and satisfying images. Over the past year I gave up all my Nikons and their lenses, trading up to the Pentax K10D, with a handful of great lenses, all for natural light, and for close-up and macro photography.
Interestingly, I bought the K10D and then did not use it for months and months, even though I assembled the best of the Pentax lenses (21, 43, 77, 100). I think I was fearful of using this great device, so I backed off. During the fall -- soon after I added a Sigma 18-50 2.8 macro, I challenged myself to take a walk with the camera down to the creek, where I started to shoot leaves, moss, a dog-walking neighbor. Now I would photograph every day, if I knew I could manage the images easily.
Obvious, unimaginative, cliched images frighten me, because (by definition) they overpopulate our lives. I would rather use the camera carefully, with intent, rather than wander with it, casually adding poor images to the world (even my own private world). So part of the pleasure of this camera lies in discovering the necessity of using it, and aiming it with an eye toward making an image that needs to be. I am pleased by shooting sky, by tight shots of flowers, and by the occasional landscape.
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It bothers me to see the photo world dominated by Nikon and Canon, and by Photoshop too; and I tend to turn away from claims of technical supremacy of this over that, according to some thread-like performance standard. I want to see great photographs, meaning images that make a difference in what I understand. As I write this, it's clear that another one of my lost careers is photojournalism. Maybe I can find a way to do this yet, in some way I have not thought of.
Having read these lists occasionally since joining, I am always impressed by the kindness and generosity of its participants. The advice is given so freely and openly, it makes me pleased to be part of this group of users, even if we are united only by a camera brand, as though a group of writers were united by their brand of pencil. Obviously it's more than the camera that makes a gathering of this kind work.
I feel obliged to post photographs of what I have done lately, since it is the visual part of this that matters the most.
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