At age ten, I received an Agfa camera as a Christmas gift from my father. With it was a roll of film that allowed for twelve images. It was Christmas day – I chose each shot with great care, utilizing three “cube” flash bulbs – a revolutionary idea since one cube had four bulbs, one on each side. I can still recall the smell of a blown bulb, and recall the milky melted mass the bulb became after use, and feel the unnerving heat they gave off just over my eye as they blew.
My father also gave me a developing kit – a “junior” developing kit. As a hobby, he had been a photographer and had developed his own work in a darkroom. But this must have been his first try with a junior kit – all my photos were ruined. I was crushed. He was crushed.
For the next year or so he gave me tips about lighting and setting up a shot for context and perspective and interest. He talked to me about how he had learned camera settings by noting, literally logging in a notebook, the settings for each shot and then reviewing and studying the outcome of each frame. I didn’t go to that extent with my little frame and shoot camera.
And for years I’ve taken snapshots to record my family’s history.
Now, all these years later, my father and his advice a memory, I have rediscovered my love for photography.
For the past three years I have been photographing the daily activity in nature at a pond near my home. And sometimes I go off-site and capture city scenes or people or nature again – at the ocean, in a meadow, or in a forest.
Almost never do I enhance or alter an image with the myriad tools that are available for digital photography. My objective is to show in pixels what the eye sees - without interference, either in the moment the image is taken nor back at the computer after the image is downloaded.
At the end of the day, I review what my eye and camera have seen. From the images, I pick and share with you the ripest, those that are most like what my naked eye saw – in color, lighting, mood, and action.
I hope you enjoy what I’ve seen.
