Everything goes around in circles for me. For a four year period of my life in the nineties I was a wedding photographer. It wasn't my primary job, it was just something I wanted to grow into and become my career. I loved photography. My father was a wedding photographer and he let me use his cameras when I got old enough. His primary cameras were a Mamiya C330 and a C220. I learned how to shoot manual pictures and do things with depth-of-field and other techniques. He bought me Ansel Adams' series of books and for my high school graduation a Minolta SRT-201 SLR. That was in 1977.
From then until I did weddings I focused on taking landscape and architecture photography. My job took me to places around the world and I took slides of some of the most beautiful places. I still have those slides and I need to digitize them for my soon-to-be portfolio. The key was that I loved photography. My wife took some of my favorite photos from that era and framed them. They hang in the wall in our hallway. On and off since then I've wanted to get the passion that I used to have.
But the wedding photography damaged my passion. I worked solo in a field where my photography equipment was no match for my competition. I worried between the wedding and the negative processing. I lost tons of money trying to get started. I hated all of the professional processing labs I dealt with. I hated the business side of wedding photography. It got to the point where I didn't want to ever pick up a camera again.
In 2000 I bought a digital point-and-shoot camera. Until it was stolen in 2004 I started enjoying taking pictures of family events. I started playing banjo and wanted to photograph those events so my wife bought me a Nikon D50. Since then I've taken pictures on and off and have enjoyed doing so. I tried souvenir photos at banjo events too.
Lately I've gotten the bug again. I started playing with HDR in 2007. I got a cellphone with a 8MP camera in it and found some great Android Apps for it. I started following photographers on Google+ and Facebook. I want now to replace my Paint Shop Pro and free software applications with Photoshop, Pro Efex, HDR Efex, Lightroom and whatever Photoshop filters I can get. I want to get a Nikon D7000 camera. I want to pursue career again (but not weddings!)
I am far away from the level that the best digital photographers have achieved but I can get to their level in the future. In the meantime if you want to see some wonderful photography, follow me on Google+ and let me know that you're interested in following the photographers in my circle. I have over 250 photographers in that circle. I'll share the circle with you.
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