My interest in Photography started when I was probably 10 years old. My fascination for photography began with a brownie camera that was basically just a box. I remember making double exposures with it of a Ford Pinto and my mom. I know, I know, interesting combination. I was a creative minded kid, what do you expect. Anyhow, that lasted for a while and then faded due to the fact that film costs were more than a kid in my allowance class could afford.
By the time I was in high school my desire to create what I saw in my head through photography began to rise again. I wanted to take pictures and be a photographer. My parents bought me a Pentax ME Super and I took photo class all through high school, including yearbook staff. I still remember all the time spent in the darkroom developing all the pictures I took. It was very fun. We were taught the basics with Quaker Oats canisters. We used with different size pin holes for different apertures. I think that is when I really grasped what was going on inside a camera. To this day, I still have all the photos taken from that class, packed away somewhere.
Once again, life took over and I began to focus on musical interests and photography wasn't what drove me as much as making music did. It was probably in 1995 that I purchased my fist copy of Adobe Photoshop and Pagemaker. It was Photoshop 3.0. I was amazed at all I could do to fix some really bad images I had lying around. It then hit me that I had finally found a tool that I could use, in conjunction with my photos to create the compositions I imagined. Unfortunately there was a steep learning curve, but I conquered. I learned little by little.
In 2007 I bought the whole Adobe Suite CS3 and began learning Photoshop and Flash. It wasn't until finding the National Association for Photoshop Professionals that I found help with all my questions. Photoshop UserTV and Scott Kelby's books were a great resource for advancing in photography and Photoshop at an execrated pace.
I now use Adobe Lightroom 2.0 and Photoshop Extended CS4 as my main tools for managing, editing photos and creating compositions.There are no tools on the market that can compare to the power and creativity you have with Lightroom and Photoshop. The creative ability is endless... on the software side.
In 2008, I picked up a Canon Rebel and began shooting Landscape. I was in love again. To create the world as I see it on a digital negative has ignited a passion for other areas of photographic compositions. I also began to follow The Strobist. The Strobist site is a site for every photographer, definitely a "must see". All of this has caused a kindled fire to rise for shooting portraits with a focus on Location Portrait Photography. Interested?
So now my passion for photography is here to stay and I am not going to stop creating images. I want to thank all of you that have supported me and my art through the years. May God bless you!
