My Introduction

I have finally arrived into the world of blogging, and I am anxious to introduce you all to my world of photography and my creative mind.  I thought I would introduce you all to my photography by sharing some of my evolution as a photographer and what I have learned so far.  I thought I would first start off with how I got started with photography and my evolution to where I am at now in my journey. 

My love of pictures actually began from my looking at my father’s beloved photo albums for years and I truly caught the picture bug from there.  I loved that all of the important memories that I would never remember the details of were captured so timelessly for all to reminisce over forever.

 I actually began my foray into the world of taking pictures with my very first camera purchase for my 19^th birthday, the Kodak Disk camera in college in 1985.  I started off just taking pictures of my friends and different events in the dorm and at school just to capture the moment.

It took a lot for me to commit myself to being a photographer as opposed to the guy who takes all the pictures at the events, and I was very intimidated by the prospect.  Big cameras, big lenses, and doing more with the camera than pointing and shooting seemed very daunting at the time.  However, I loved the concept of photography so much and I always watched with great envy people who owned “real cameras” at the events I attended and I always connected with them to see what it was like to own such a precious machine.  Before my first DSLR purchase I was primarily into Canon cameras with my last two investments being the Canon G1 and the Canon SL1S mega zoom back in the day.  Both were major investments at the time but they also were for the most part just “Point-and-Shoot” cameras.  I was very proud of owning them at the time and supported my identity amongst my friends as being the official picture taker at all of our events.

 

I started off just taking pictures of my friends and different events in the dorm and at school just to capture the moment.

 What I learned as the Official Picture Taker are wonderful lessons that truly helped me in my evolution to Photographer:

• ·         I love connecting with people through my lens
• ·         I am truly in my element with my camera no matter what the situation
• ·         People connect with me regardless of how expensive my equipment is
• ·         Always be ready to capture the moment
• ·         Be bold as I position myself for “the shot” and establish myself as The Picture Taker (before I became The Photographer)
• ·         I need to learn more about what my camera can do

I finally decided to take the leap into the land of the Big Cameras after my SL1S died of natural causes and many pictures in 3 years, and after much research I was ready to jump into the world of Nikon after they had the best reviewed camera at the time even though I was initially set on purchasing the camera of my dreams at the time, the Canon Rebel Ti.  So for about $1,300 at the time in 2007 I was the proud owner of my first DSLR, the Nikon D80… and my world changed forever.

This began my evolution from Official Picture Taker to Photographer, and I will share the next part of my journey in my next entry...

Smile for the camera!

Derek