When I was a boy, my dad used to get us all into the Volkswagen Beatle and drive out to the countryside. He would find someplace we hadn’t been to before – I’m not sure how he did that on such a tiny island – and we would stop and take photographs.
Sometimes the adventures wouldn’t work out. Like the time my Dad took a very narrow road up a very steep hill. The road ended and so did the trip as my dad slowly backed the car down that road. I remember those trips fondly as my dad captured them all on his Asahi Pentax Spotmatic.
A few years ago my dad gave me his camera. It no longer works but now sits on a shelf alongside a Pentax P3 film camera that I bought for a college photography course.
When my son was born in 1999 I decided it was time to make the switch to digital. I just could not justify the cost of developing and making prints from the hundreds of photographs of my son that I took each month.
My first digital camera was a 3MP Sony DSC-S70. I took thousands of photographs – some of which are framed 16×20 prints on the wall of my home – learning along the way. Eventually I wanted more control so on the day of my wife’s cousins engagement party, I bought my first DSLR – a Nikon D40. The Sony now sits on the shelf next to the two Pentax cameras.
Despite taking a few composition courses, I don’t trust my composition skills so I tend to shoot everything multiple times trying to get it “just right”. I’m prolific. My photographic style can best be described as a mixture of intuition, perseverance and “lucky”.
I’ll photograph just about anything but I prefer nature scenes and the architectural elements of buildings. Fortunately for me, I live near Princeton University in an area surrounded by farmlands, canals and country forests.
My camera equipment is nothing special. I sometimes shoot with a Nikkor 18-55mm f/5.6 VR lens but the lens I use most often is the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 – perhaps because it reminds me of my father’s Spotmatic or because it forces me to get up close when composing.
Over the summer, I practiced my fireworks photography and started messing around with HDR photography. Recently, I’ve been using my iPhone 4 camera quite a bit. It’s more accessible than the D40 – handy when I’m just out living my life.
My favourite photographer is Dustin Diaz (link: http://photography.dustindiaz.com/). I love the way he bends light to create his strobe masterpieces. I want to create works of “Light Art” like that.
Nice colors, looks like your of to a good start. When shooting landscapes one compositional technique I use it to always try to include something in what I call the near field. Something close to you. Take for example this picture http://www.briancareyphotography.com/Newfoundland/Newfoundland/12161816_xMGCJ#865219292_ijhSk
I used the boat in the fore ground as an anchor. This is a simple technique and really helps accentuates the dept of field!
Good Luck!
Brian
Brian, thanks for tip. I’m learning all the time.
Love the second pic here. Nice shot!
Thanks, Chris.