Ever since I borrowed my mother’s brownie camera for a middle school field trip, I was hooked on photography. I dabbled with a Diana camera, and Instamatic cameras before landing my first “real” camera, the Nikon Fe-2 with a 50mm prime in college. I can’t say enough for having to learn the basics of photo & film by shooting & processing 35mm b/w film. Having to shoot 2 rolls a week in Intro to Photography, working on composition, exposure, depth of field and even push/pull processing still serves me today shooting in the digital age.
After college I started a position doing copy & small object micro/macro photography, where I really refined my craft, both in the darkroom and using more professional grade equipment (4×5 cameras and 120 Hasselblads). I began offering other types of photography that I continue til this day, like studio portraiture and event photography. Shooting weddings “old school” style with film and manual focus cameras, forced you to hone your craft in preparing a shot, that many young digital shooters today overlook. Setting up a 4×5 camera, trying to catch the Golden hour (really only a few minutes) of a landscape or architectural subject really meant you had to know your … stuff. Of course technical skills were not limited to just your camera and film, it relied on your knowledge on lighting color (now called “white balance”) and ratios. Starting to use Dynalite Studio strobes in the 80’s gave me an awareness of setting up artificial lights to mimic natural lighting both in the studio, and on location.
Even before my first digital camera, I was scanning images and working in PhotoShop to manipulate, and enhance images, starting with version 5.0 in the mid 90’s. That being said, the only manipulation to my photography is typically limited to perspective distortion, and minor dust & scratch type of edits. But I do enjoy playing with the many features of PS and have created some photo montages and illustrations over the years.
Cameras Through (My) Ages:
Brownie Flash Six-20
Kodak Instamatic X-15
Nikon Fe-2
Nikon F3
Hasselblad 500
Pentax K
Omega View 45D
Mamiya C3
Bronica SQ-A
Nikon D90s
Nikon D70
Nikon D300
Nikon D610