| | Rayofhope
 | It all began over fifty years ago. I talked my Dad into loaning me his prized Kodak 35mm camera. No, it wasn't like today's SLRs. This was a fixed lens camera. Composition was done with the aid of an external range finder sight. No metering. I spent all the money I earned cutting lawns and washing cars on black and white film. I was hooked.
Fast forward a decade or so, and I have a family of my own. I managed to convince my wife that we needed a camera to record our growing children. We scraped up enough for a Sears 35mm camera. Wow. Through the lens composition – I could actually see the focus instead of guessing the distance. A little needle indicated the exposure as I manually changed f stop and shutter speed. The lens was not easily interchangeable, but I couldn't afford lenses anyway. I spent a lot of years shooting the family and the American West with a 50mm lens. No problem. My zoom was in my feet, just walk a bit closer (careful of that canyon edge). One of the major things I learned in this period was recognizing and capturing an image FAST, before the kids got restless. Tripod? Don't be silly. I barely slowed down to make my snaps in those days.
Then the kids were grown, and turned out to be very good photographers themselves. I can wait for the light. I can balance my camera on a tripod, and compose more than one capture of a scene as the light changes. On my vacation trips, my major expense was film and processing.
At the turn of the century, I bought my first digital camera. I thought it would just be a toy and I'd still photograph with slide film for my “real” pictures. Not so. I dove into digital capture and never looked back. My cameras are now smarter than I am, and I have trouble carrying around all the lenses I've managed to talk myself into buying (although of course I still need more). I LOVE my digital dark room and archival printer. Now I have total control and can make prints that match my vision when I made the original exposure.
I am that rare dedicated fine art photographer who does NOT want to be a professional. I want to spend the rest of my life out in the field making more photographs, not stuck inside tending to a business. I do sell fine art prints, but it's more to make the people who want them happy than to make money, and I spend NO time on “business” or self-promotion.
I enjoy showing my photographs. I've been quite successful over the years at the International Exhibition of Photography held at the San Diego County fair. Many of my pictures have been accepted for showing, and I've received numerous honorable mention ribbons as well as a fourth place ribbon. I've also had photographs accepted in shows at the La Jolla Art Association and the Escondido Art Association, where I earned a second place ribbon. I currently have photographs hanging in the Archives of Escondido gallery.
My photography has been used by the Sierra Club, for local San Diego publications and in flyers and a brochure for our nation wide clean water campaign. The Fund for Animals used my pictures in it's new brochure, magazine, and 2008 calendar. A group of my tiger pictures were used in a book on the life of Cleveland Amory. | | General Information | | Profile Type: | Personal | | Rating: |  | | Gender: |  Male | | Age: | 65 | | Languages: | American. I understand some British and Ausie, but don't really speak it. :) | | My Cities | | Hometown: |  United States, California, San Diego | | Interests & Personality | | Interests: | Camping and hiking, nature photography, gardening. | |
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