My Story

So the story goes like this.

I've always taken pictures, not usually of people or friends, but whenever I would go somewhere I was out taking pictures of the places, the architecture, the things I saw, what was happening around me. My parents would often comment "Weren't there other people there with you?"

I can recall going to an art festival at the cottage one year, and seeing these awesome black and white photos of trees in the mist. "Very cool," I thought, "but I could take that same picture, if I had a good camera;" and that's where I'd always left it.

One day at work a really nice camera arrived. I was super jealous of this really nice camera, but really excited because now I had access to a really nice camera on evenings and weekends. I would beg and borrow this camera drag it along to places when I could and even had the chance to do some really wicked shoots for work with it. But it just wasn't the same as having my own.



Then in March of this year, a few areas of my life all met roadblocks. I was looking for a creative outlet and had been joining a friend on several photowalks around the city while he worked on his photo-a-day project and then it hit me: "Put up or shut up!" I told myself.

I called my friend to meet me for lunch and to help me pick out my new camera. Linda, as she would later be called, came in a bright gold box that said D80 on the side. It was the happiest day of my life! Uhm err...okay probably not THE happiest day of my life, but it was pretty darn exciting.

This has led to many really awesome photography experiences over the last year.




I've shot:
-Zombies looking for brains downtown Toronto
-Hundreds of people bashing others with pillows
-An air race in Windsor
-A wedding
-The youth group I volunteer with on a retreat
-An independent fashion show
-A Soling regatta in Kingston, ON
-An auto show
-Friends and family for fun, Christmas cards and websites
-LOTS of architecture

I've learned:
-How to use my camera's light meter (haha)
-How to make a stick-in-a-can
-How to use studio lights
-How to get my flash off camera
-What bokeh is...and that out of focus does not equal bokeh
-How to obsess over every magazine, book and new product on the subject
-How to spend more money on photography gear in my mind then in reality
-That Starbucks sleeves make for fabulously cheap snoots
-That it doesn't matter how expensive your camera is or how many megapixels it has, you can still make beautiful photography.
-That any light source really counts as "natural" light...cuz it's still light right?
-While shooting movement, triple tapping your shutter usually brings something cool and unexpected on the second or third frame.

I've learned a lot more than that...and maybe that's another post for another time.

More soon...