The Start of Something New

Starting something brand new is almost a daunting task. Will you keep it going or is it a phase where you love it for a few months and then you find something else? Are you afraid of failure or are you willing to take the failures as learning opportunities? For many people, photography is just like this.

Photography, for me, was a random find. Once I got back home from the Marine Corps, I was lost; and to a degree, I still am. I jumped jobs for around a year, doing security work and fueling planes at an airport in Denver. I met my wife, we moved in together, ended up in the job that I have now, and have pushed through it for over 4 years. once my wife and I moved in together, I found that she had an old Sony a300 with a single kit lens. I told her one day that I wanted to go out with the camera and just wander around Boulder, CO with this little 10.2 megapixel DSLR.

I am not afraid to admit, nor should anyone else, I had no clue what I was doing with it at the time. So, we walked around and I took photos. Once we got home, I realized something. I was the happiest I had been in a long time. Walking around, taking photos of anything I wanted and anything I could. I didn’t think of the camera, I didn’t think of the people around me. I was sucked into the world around me without a care in the world. I was paying attention to nature, little details that I otherwise would never have thought to notice. I did this a few times and then decided that I wanted my own camera.

So, we went out to Mikes Camera Store outside of Denver and I picked up an “old” Nikon D3100, a cheap kit lens, and a memory card and just started shooting. I took my camera everywhere with me. Went to the mall, had my camera. Went to work, had my camera. Anywhere I went, I had it with me. I just kept it with me. Of course, as time went on, and as a new photography enthusiast, I had the notion that gear is what made a photo good. For those that need to hear it, gear does not make a photograph good, the photographer makes the photograph good.

Anyways, I went on for about a year, upgrading my gear almost continuously, and trying different types of photography. At one point, I ended up with a Nikon D7100 and a Fujifilm X-T2. It was at this point that I started to move forward in my photography journey and got into shooting drag races at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, CO. This short lived experience is what really kick-started my love of photography. Getting photos of something that not many people are able to get, and being in an area that almost no one is able to be. There was no money involved for me (aside from the obvious expenses of paying for more and more new gear) because I had agreed to be unpaid by the contract photographer on the track. It was here that I realized that this experience for me was far more valuable, at least, for a while. The more I learned, the more I wanted to monetize the skills that I had been taught for high speed photography. Getting a usable photo of a car going 200 mph past you is not as easy as most people would think. Come the end of the race season, I left and went back to street and landscape photography with the occasional portrait session with a friend of mine at the time.

In the middle of this still fairly fresh pickup of a new hobby, I decided it was time I went back to school to get a degree. I decided that I wanted to get a degree in Political Science from Johnson and Wales in Denver as an online student while also working full time. I got started and very quickly realized that I didn’t want to do that. I finished my first semester of school and then withdrew. Then, I decided that I wanted to make photography my job. So, I enrolled at Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design to pursue a degree in Commercial Photography. This, of course, was a turning moment in my life and I caught a lot of flack from family. I decided that I don’t want my life to revolve around making as much money as I possibly can. I decided that I wanted to be happy and to do something that I genuinely love. So, here I am.

Through my school, I found the types of photography the I love. I will say though, It took a long time to figure it out. I’ve shot a ton of different types of photography and found my passion lies within landscapes and street. My own reason for this is that you get to shoot something that will never be exactly the same after that shot. It feels genuine, un-staged, and emotional. With all of this being said, learning new things is what makes you better. Although you may not think that high speed motor sports or portrait photography plays a part in landscapes or street photography, it does nonetheless. You understand framing, leading lines, foreground and background importance. You may not be having to pan-shoot a landscape but, you learn the movements for quick shots when that animal runs by that you’ve been trying to get a shot of for the last 3 days.

My goal with this blog is to not only help with understanding photography and toss out ideas but, its also to learn. I want to hear your stories about how you got into photography, why you chose it. I want to also learn from you and have a conversation about your photography. Let me know your stories and what you think about photography today.

With this blog, I want to introduce people to photography, no matter who you are. If you’re shooting on a phone, you just got your first camera and have no clue what to do, or if you’ve been in photography for years. If your a novice, hobbyist, or professional, I want this to be a place for anyone that has a love of photography and its inner workings.

I am excited to hear your stories and your insights and I cant wait to hear from you.

Landscapes - Be Prepared for the Worst

Landscape photography is what you make it. It can be enjoyable or, it can be a beast that is tough to conquer. One thing that Landscape photography almost requires is time. Some may say, “But you’re just going out and taking a photo of an area of space? Why does anyone think its hard?” Well, in some circumstances, that may be correct. You can have no plan at all and just go somewhere and take a landscape photo. It may turn out great, it may not. As many of us know, that opinion falls on the eyes of the beholder. Personally, I don’t think there’s a photographer on the planet who hasn’t just gone out somewhere at random and taken some photos. I mean, that is photography. Part of the fun is being somewhere new, doing something that you love to share an experience.

With or without a plan, things can go wrong in a heartbeat. Living where I do, south of Houston and a 20 minute drive from Galveston, I love to go and take sunrise landscapes over the water of the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, when you’re shooting landscapes, you aren’t going to be standing indoors, at least majority of the time, so you have to somewhat expect what kind of weather you’re going to be shooting in.

In the little spot that I like to shoot from, you are on the farthest east point of the island, on a little outcrop of beach. If you live on or near a coast line, you probably already know, but weather can change in a heartbeat. I went out one day, nice and early in the morning (a little too early honestly) to this favorite spot of mine. I watched the weather report pretty closely and somewhat knew what to expect, or so I thought. I got out onto the beach while it was still basically pitch black. Like I said, little too early. There was some cloud cover but, that is exactly what I wanted; some high clouds to bounce a bit of that nice, soft, blue light back down onto the water. I got my gear set up, set up my tripod, and got my Canon EOS R with a 70-200mm f/2.8 from Sigma and I sat and waited. Some ships were coming into the bay so I decided while I waited for the sun to rise, I wanted to get some long exposure shots of the ships coming in to get some nice light streaks. I went ahead and opened up my aperture as wide as I could and set the shutter for a full 30 seconds. I grabbed around 10 shots and then, as I was looking through the pictures, I noticed that there was a fog rolling in with the ship I was shooting. At least, I thought it was just fog. Aside from what was in my camera, I couldn’t really see the fog with just my eyes. I switched over to my 24-105mm f/4 as a small amount of light started coming up at this point. As soon as I started grabbing some frames, I felt some sprinkling rain start falling, immediately, I started to worry. I had read that some people were experiencing problems with the weather sealing on their Canon EOS R’s and the R Mount lenses but, with how little was falling and how light it was, I figured it would be fine. I packed some camera rain covers anyways right? I’ll just put them on if I need them.

Suddenly, you could hear a noise coming from the water that wasn’t just waves breaking. There was a roar coming from the water and getting closer. Without blinking an eye, it started to downpour. The moment I felt a large drop hit me, I went to my bag to grab the rain cover… It wasn’t there. Without taking my camera off of the tripod, I grabbed my gear, zipped up my bag, and sprinted to the car that was about 150 yards away, all while trying to keep my camera as dry as possible. I got to the car and, as gently as physically possible, tossed my camera and tripod in the back seat along with my bag. I got into the front seat soaked from the rain, my lower half covered in wet sand. I sat and just got angry. How could I possibly forget the rain covers? And then I realized, I had cleared out my bag for this short trip and, since the weather report showed no chance of rain, I left out my rain covers and left it to chance. I sat and waited for the rain to pass, all the while, the sun was slowly starting to rise. Finally, the rain stopped completely and I watched the clouds for any sign of more. It started to dry out and so I grabbed my gear once again and went back to the same spot that I was in before. I set back up and go to start taking some photos. I look in my camera to check the shots and they seemed a bit foggy so I checked the front element, grabbed my lens rag and wiped it off. Take another frame, still fogged. I grab the rag and wipe off the view finder since it was also fogged up a bit on the outside. I take another few frames, and they are all fogged so, I decided to look into the lens. Sure enough, one of my inner elements are completely fogged up.

Shooting landscapes seem easy enough at first, and some times they are. The biggest part of it is being prepared. Don’t hike into the mountains with nothing but a camera and expect that nothing will go wrong. Take time, watch the weather, check your gear, and check your gear again. Just because you’ve done it before, doesn’t mean you cant fail. Research where you want to go, where you’ll park the car, how far you’ll have to walk to get to your spot, how long will you be there. Take your time in planning if you can. If you do just want to go somewhere at random to see what there is, just think ahead of time, “Do I have everything I may need for this?” You may not think of absolutely everything, but at least you know you tried at the end of the day. Just be prepared to be uncomfortable.