Kick-Off

2008 was a great year for me photographically. While I had picked up a Canon 40D and began learning some lighting essentials over at Strobist in 2007, it was in '08 that photography really came back around for me in a real way.


Let me take you back a minute for historical perspective. I had a 110 film camera very early in life, and my first 35mm plastic Fingerhut catalog camera at about age 11. From taking pics of friends jumping bicycles, high school yearbook, and a short semester on the college paper staff (TCU Daily Skiff, Go Frogs!), photography was a big part of my life. Then it all stopped with a "real job," playing in a band, relationships, growing up, etc. etc.


With the aquisition of a DSLR and maybe a little too much free time, photography was back, and I cannot imagine a better time than now to grow in skill as a photographer. Between the ultra-fast learning potential with digital imaging and the enormous amount of available knowledge and learning resources, there are no excuses for not getting better if that is your goal.

OK... Back to 2008. I shot and learned as much as possible... HS band concerts, church and organization events, family portraits, kids, parties, HS football, HS basketball, car shows, weddings, and a whole lot of pictures of our dog.



Now for 2009, I want to share some of that knowledge with whoever cares to read it, and I hope to learn a lot more in the process. The best way to get better fast is in shared experience with others, so that's the goal, we all get better, and have some fun too!

Every post should have a photo component, so I will leave with this, my favorite keeper from our Christmas celebrations. It is my father-in-law, and he is very photogenic.




Canon 5D, 70mm, f2.8, 1/60, Bounced Flash.

Bouncing the flash off a low, white ceiling and coming in really tight with shallow depth-of-field gave me an image that I like a lot. This was in a room full of distracting backgrounds with kids running around and general Christmas chaos, so most of the pictures turned out to be very ordinary looking.

Thanks for stopping by,

Don J.