I am devolving as a photographer…

When I started on my photo knowledge journey, I went by all the usual things associated with doing a self-taught skillset.

Back in the dark ages, it was common to buy actual books on a subject of photography as YouTube was still sort of in its infancy. You could find information on the web but it was still really limited. Today we are literally bombarded with a constant stream of information that is dizzying.

I chose my camera based on information from one of the OGs of the photography space on the web… Ken Rockwell. Now hear me out before you throw your computer across the room.

It is no secret that Ken has a love affair with Nikon and it shows through on his site. So many well worded reviews to choose from made starting my journey with photography a Nikon based one. It is cemented so well that I have never even tried to shoot Canon on my own volition. Nikon should be giving Ken royalties to be honest about it. His reviews are fair (from what I can tell) and well worded and very technical. He has other brands on his site these days too, but back in the day, it was a wealth of Nikon information.

When, I did jump in, it was with a D7000 DSLR. This was the most technologically advanced of the DX format models at the time. The camera included things such as the focus motor for the older screw drive focus lenses as well as sporting several other features not available on the lesser models of the period. I loved that camera and shot on it for several years while learning the rudiments of the craft.

During this period I learned all the cliche things about shooting “better” photos and some of those old rules still linger today in my composition techniques. Fortunately I have since learned that some things are not actually set in stone and you can bend and even break the rules if done right and the images will be great anyway.

Back then I took the idea of mounting one lens and using it for a period of time. Sometimes these periods of time could be quite long. I remember mounting the 35mm f1.8 and leaving it on the camera for months at one point. This is probably why I have gravitated back to that field of view today. Once you use a certain focal length a while, you will get comfortable with what that lens can do for you and you know what to expect. It is like asking an old friend for advice… you just know it is going to be good.

At some point I bought a big fast aperture zoom (the 70-200mm if memory serves me) and thought I was in hog heaven. Well, if you dont need a big expensive zoom lens, then why did you buy one? G.A.S. Is the usual culprit here and I am guilty of having this disorder of photography. I am recovering at this point though and at some point I simply stopped buying the latest camera because it was better than the last one or what ever. I still to this day cant seem to stop buying vintage lenses though so I am a work in progress… lol.

I have since figured out that with my photography, I dont need zoom lenses very often at all. I have figured out that I can have more fun with a nice prime lens and not worry too much about the missing some special photo or some such. I have learned to just let some photos go and be more in the moment instead. You dont always have to get every single photo possible.

I went through this phase too. Living life through the camera viewfinder… this isn’t really living but rather documenting and is not the same thing. This is why I now travel with a very light camera kit if I am going on a trip to do something other than photography for the primary focus of the trip. I feel it is more important to live in the moment than to worry incessantly on getting the best angle or exposure or whatever. It is this last part that has taught me that I have evolved as a photographer. I no longer need to photograph everything possible and spend countless hours editing in lightroom to be happy. To be completely transparent about it, I only edit a very select few images in Lightroom these days just to get the “one” I want. I still shoot in raw plus jpeg to give me that choice but I rarely use the raw files.

Looking back at your photography journey, have you progressed in a positive way?

Chasing the light...

Ok, this is going to be a short and sweet kind of post. I normally make YouTube videos about things that involve lots of images playing past the viewer and just lay some music over it to more or less inspire the viewer to do what I say at the end…”Get your camera out and go take a picture with it”

Never before has this been a truer statement than today. But we need to ask ourselves an important question…what do we like to shoot?

With world events being what they are and how the physical world around us is changing constantly as time goes on, I am not ready to just let it pass me by without documenting some of it as I go. Armed with this knowledge, I look for two things to photograph, things that will be gone soon or interesting light. That is what drew me to the photo above of the couple painting down by the river by iPhone light. The light was just too good to pass up.

You see, I am not what I would call an artist. I don’t think my photography is that noteworthy. Once I am gone, maybe someone will find these hard drives and then will think they are filled with the coolest photos and video the world has ever seen, just not today. That being said, I do think that I am a decent documentary photographer and that as time goes on I get better with it.

Things I normally photograph will be buildings that are gone now, that I could tell somehow that were probably headed for the wrecking ball or like the series below where I photo-documented the construction of the Kinley hotel and how there is a Coca-cola sign that is now hidden from view between the buildings because of the hotel. For me this is the sort of thing that is simply fascinating for some reason.

As an added bonus in these photos there is also another piece of history that undergoes a change as well. If you will notice that the sign on the corner for the ADAMS building appears in the last 4 photos where I thought to go across the street and get the image. This sign survives into the renovation and it restored and back in place at the end. The ADAMS building no longer exists but the sign somehow survives into the current day…

Another aspect of my photography is more artistic where I will shoot at night to capture interesting light in different areas of the city, where ever that might be. I have began to look for movie marques in the town square of small towns and get them lit up at night.

But the real thing I have started to do it just take photos. Things that happen around me like the photo here of the smoke from local wildfires because it hasn’t rained in something like 2 or 3 months at this point.

These next two photos were not taken on the same night, but were captured about 1/4 mile of each other. One is the river front and I just liked the way the light fell that night on the water as well as the light spill from the street lights across the river and the color of the sunset all just came together for a great photo. The next one is simply a photo of a couple of buildings on Market and 5th street. The signage and the lights just made for a cool photo to me so I stopped for a second and grabbed a few images of it at varying exposure levels so I could get the lit signs to expose properly as well as the rest of the stuff. It is just a cool photo to me.

If you have not figured it out yet, I want you to start taking a long hard look at what it is that you enjoy photographing. i mean REALLY boil it down to the simplest components. For me it was the two things I just mentioned, for you it might be saturated colors or people waving at you or blur in your photo. The point is, don’t just generalize your answer, the only person you hurt in this event is yourself if you are not 100% truthful.

If you like to watch videos too, here is the video I did on the same subject.

So ask yourself what it is that you like and then go out and make photos of that AND don’t let yourself fall into the trap of not being able to change this with time. I started out wanting to shoot urban decay only, but it turned out that was not the root of what I like to shoot, but it led me to it. Anyway, with that said, get your camera out and go take a picture with it!