As far back as my teenage years I have always been into photography. The coincidence of my old Canon T50 getting damaged and the introduction of digital photography kind of put a damper on that interest. I still loved it, just didn't have the money to invest in new equipment so the interest kind of subsided. Over the past 9-10 years I have been keeping up with the progress of DSLR's and just longing to buy one but not able to afford one.
January of 2010 brought my the change to re-ignite my photography obsession. My wife, Melissa, had normally been laid off in the summer months because she drove a school bus for living. This year, however, after a year of schooling she got hired full time as at EMT and would not be laid off summers any more. This meant that the money I made umpiring high school softball could be used as extra and not as bill money.
When April came around I purchased my DSLR, a Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS.
The obsession was reborn!
My lunch hours at my job were spent checking out photography web sites trying to pick up any tips and instruction I could find. Every available free moment was used to either take pictures or learn how to do it better. I spend a lot of my time on Outdoor Photographer Magazine and following incredible photographers like Ian Plant, Jay Goodrich and many others and learning from them sharing their insight to their craft.
My obsession hit in the spring and due to this I learned that my favorite thing to point my camera at was moving water and waterfalls in particular. The area of the county I live in lent to this love of water. East Tennessee and Western North Carolina have hundreds of waterfalls and streams to photograph. The photo in this post is of Bald River Falls in the Cherokee National Forest that I have visited no less than 5 times since the purchase of my camera and will continue to visit more and more as I get better at the craft.
One of the additional fuels to the fire was my brother Jim's paralleled obsession. Check out his work HERE. He has become an incredible photographer with an expertise in HDR. I bounced ideas and asked him for opinions on everything from the purchase of my camera, to composition, and even still bother him with the occasional HDR processing. Sharing this interest has made communicating with him much more frequent than we had before. Being able to share photography with him has made it that much more enjoyable.
The last couple of months of the year have really brought a huge change to my photography. Jim introduced me to Oscar Navarro from Venezuela on Facebook. Another talented photographer and terribly great guy. The both of them talked me into joining Twitter because of the photography contacts and resources on it. OH MY GOSH! There are so may incredible photographers tweeting. I have met so many great people on twitter that there is no way of naming them all and every one of them fantastic photog's. I find myself talking on twitter more than Facebook nowadays.
Through Twitter, the new year will see me collaborate on some grunge photography with Chris Nitz, Rob Hanson, Jesse Pafundi, and Jim. I am very excited about this collaboration with these guys. They are all great photographers and I am humbled to be included with them.
Some of the things ahead for Denham Photography in 2011.
My photos are on sale at All Artists Home. This is exciting even though I have yet to make my first sale. Hopefully, this will blossom in the new year.
January sees me travel to San Antonio, TX for my real job, Design Engineer for Yamaha Sport Boats. I'm excited about shooting the Riverwalk, the Missions, and downtown San Antonio in the 5 days I will be there.
Springtime presents the opportunity to take what I have learned from the latter part of the year and apply it to the streams and waterfalls of the area. Can't wait for green foliage and full streams.
The spring also starts softball umpiring for me. I can take the money I earn and apply it to building my photography resources. New lenses, software, and gadgets are on the wish list.
My son is a sophomore in high school and I have spent a ton of time shooting his basketball team. Love sports photography and the new equipment I have on the wish list will hopefully add to the quality of those basketball shots when he becomes a junior and gets more playing time. My daughter's cheerleading is another avenue of sports photography that I look forward to every year.
Can't wait to see what happens this year!
Can't go without thanking and acknowledging my wife and kids. They tolerate me without complaining too much. They can't possibly fathom what they mean to me. I give a lot of credit in photography to my wife. She prods me to take certain shots and styles. Tells me her honest opinion of the shots I take. All this in addition to being an incredible wife and mother. I don't know what I would do without her.
I met a lot of great people in 2010 in addition to the already great people I already know and love. To all of you I say thank you for your support, opinions, tips, and friendship. I hope 2011 will be safe and prosperous for all of you.
Sorry I got a bit wordy. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
No comments:
Post a Comment