fireflywash - A beginning...

I received my first camera

when I was in elementary school, let's call it around 8 y/o. I immediately enjoyed taking pictures, something about lining up an image, hearing the "click", then the metallic rolling sound of the gear and vibration of the camera as you advanced the film with the film advancement lever. Just a nice satisfying process. I didn't so much care about how the images turned out at the time because more times than not, they were blurry or the sun seemed to have taken over the picture.

Then there was the waiting, waiting for the film to be developed. For a young kid, you'd think it would be hard or one might quickly become uninterested. But that was the best part for me, taking enough "rolls" of film to end up with a dragon's cache of undeveloped film, disks & tubes! Then dropping off that pile of treasure to see what would come out a week later when you picked it up with your parents. What a process!!!

Getting home and immediately sorting through the images to weed out and add to the discard pile of "finger was in the way". And luckily the family was supportive because they actually wanted to see what treasures were within the film they had helped drop off...and pay for :-), let's be honest, they were paying for any film development at the time.

I wish I would have saved all my cameras but I tended to sell one when I thought there was something better out there for me and to help fund my new camera. I remember it was a big deal when you no longer had to attach a separate flash and could just pop an overpriced super expensive battery into your camera for the same, if not brighter effect of lighting up the darkness for that special image.

The next leap forward for me with my photography

was in high school, the photography class that was offered was one where you also were able to develop your film in a dark room and then using your negatives transfer the image to the super expensive photography paper of choice! This was outstanding!! Not only did you get to learn about all the technical aspects of the school-provided 35mm cameras with the stops, ranges, and focal lengths. But by touch alone, you got to remove your film from its canister, roll it within the double-armed black box "changing bag" into a reel, develop the film with chemistry, timing, temperature, a great fixer, hang it up to dry, and then heading to the darkroom to make some magic.

My Canon PowerShot G5 digital 5mp beast was

not my first digital camera but definitely my favorite and what I have taken a large portion of my photos with. I had used a G3 for a bit previously but once I was able to get the G5 I never turned back. Fast shutter, great close-ups, and tons of 35mm equivalent attachments, to say I loved using this camera would be an understatement! If you want to learn more about his camera check it out on the camera wiki. This camera went everywhere with me and I was always that guy taking pictures of every event. In retrospect, make sure to put the camera down and enjoy the time with family and friends as well. I wasn't so great at that aspect.

Camera Phones ruined photography

but don't get me wrong I have an iPhone that will take images at 0 to 15 feet better than almost any camera I've had in the past. So by ruined I just mean provided increased convenience for the user and made everyone essentially a photographer and photography critic. But there have been some really great images taken with mobile devices and a lot of people have learned what makes a great photo. I just don't think many appreciate the photography process nowadays when you can just pull out your phone and "snap".

What I like to shoot are

primarily animals, creatures in nature, and scenic images (close-ups, med, and long shots). I enjoy taking pictures of family members but other than that, people pictures are my least favorite. I enjoy the challenge that a butterfly may move or fly off, a ray of light might be lost or the perfect reflection of light might vanish before you can take the shot you are lining up with your photography eye. There are no verbal cues you can give to water to make it stay in place or to an animal hiding in a field to tilt its head just to the left a bit, I love that. But all photographers have a reason they love their craft and my favorite pizza doesn't have to be someone else's.

I hope you enjoyed this small clunky and badly written insight into my photography origin story. Feel free to check out my Owl link to see some of my collections of photography or just to learn a bit more about me.

For the love of Photography & Art!
Soli Deo Gloria - fireflywash