Happy Lensdays, Pooh?

The Bluejacket Creative

Happy Lensday, kids! That's right. I said Lensday. Photography is what we're going to talk about on Wednesdays! This could be a tip, an opinion, a review if I have something to review, but it's gonna be a talk about photography. Today though, we're going to talk about how Photography and I got together in the first place. Now, I need to make it clear that I'm not a pro. I've been paid for my photography by some very nice people that have asked me to do a couple of things for them, but I'm not a pro in the sense that photography is all I do. If it were, I'd be a photojournalist and still make no money, but I'd love what I do.

Of course, my parents had a Polaroid, but I wasn't allowed to touch it because the film was not cheap back in those days for a One-Step, and you didn't get a lot of it in a package. My first 'real' film camera was a Pentax that my friend Lawrence lent me for a Photography 101 class I took in school. It was taught by a guy named Ed Gibbs. Great guy and he's the guy that originally planted the bug in my brain. He was also a big ol' tattle tale, which in hindsight was a good thing. Y'see, Ed's wife, worked with my Dad at a defense contractor. So, when I came in with what I thought was a FANTASTIC shot of my Siamese Cat, he told me it was out of focus. I told him it wasn't; it was great. He said, "Kris, we've had this back and forth a couple of times on your photos. I can see that you're sincere when you say this photo is great. So I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I think you need glasses." At the time, I was furious about this because I spent a lot of time on this photo. The lighting, exposure, and amount of patience it takes to get a cat to cooperate for 5-10 seconds were a feat. I didn't expect to get told I needed glasses by someone who didn't know me well.

When my Dad came home later that evening, he brought it up and asked me why I never mentioned this before, and I told him I thought I was seeing fine until a couple of hours ago. Words blurring on a page to me while I read them I thought was just eye fatigue, and I suffered through it. I saw other things just fine, and I never had any trouble with road signs or anything like that. Still, I went to the eye doctor. It turns out I had double astigmatism, and I got a pair of glasses. I have to tell you what a moment that was to see things as clearly and as sharp as a lot of you do. The first thing I did was grab the camera. I passed that class. I went on to be quite the shutterbug for years until I got married and had kids. Like photography and playing the guitar and drums, the old hobbies I enjoyed went by the wayside because I worked so much. Eventually, the camera I bought with my own money became obsolete, replaced by digital cameras that had me shudder every time I looked at the price. So photography got lost by the wayside for several years.

In 2013, I got a job doing tech support for a company that makes printers and cameras. As time went on, that itch to grab a camera started growing. My company allowed us to check out cameras to use, so I grabbed one and went shooting for a weekend, and I was hooked again. I went pawn shopping and found a Canon T5i with two lenses for cheap, and I still use that camera today. In fact, I bought a Canon T6 for my wife, and we go shooting on Saturday Mornings. I can tell you that photography has done wonders for our marriage. We did not have a shared hobby for 24 years until I bought her a camera, and now we look forward to that time together. Together being the operative word.

As time has gone on, I find myself gravitating towards certain kinds of photography. I love black and white photography, and I prefer to edit my photos that way. In some cases, I'll desaturate most of the color except one and let that one pop. Since my favorite color is blue, that's generally what you'll see remain in my photos. I love patterns. Geometry. I love abstract or minimal photography. However, I find that what I love the most is what I will call seagull photography. The beach and the ocean have been part of my life since the day I was born, and the one time I left it, I realized I couldn't live without it. I would love to go to different coastal towns around the country and the world and take photos of the beach and ocean life. I've started branching out into street photography to make this work, and I find that walking around with a DSLR causes people to get nervous. I tend to use my smartphone and lenses by a great company called Moment to capture those photos. That brings up a touchy subject among professional photographers. Chase Jarvis said once--I think it was Chase--that the best camera in the world is the one you have with you. Whatever that may be. Most everyone has a camera on their phone now, and there are great apps like Moment or Obscura or Halide that give you more control over some settings and let you take great photos. Not pictures, mind you...PHOTOS. If you have an eye for composition and can take advantage of lighting, and really dig into these apps and learn what they can really do, you can take photos that are indistinguishable from DSLR photos these days. Use the tool you prefer to get the job done.

And here on Lensdays, we're going to talk about how to do that.