I’m a pixel-pushing, genre-crossing, restless tinkering photographer.
I did not find photography, it found me, quite suddenly and unexpectedly. It happened while hiking in the wooded hills overlooking the Hudson River one day back in 2010.
I don’t know why, but I pulled out my Blackberry Bold phone camera and started taking pictures of my surroundings. By accident, I spun the camera while pushing the shutter, and the result intrigued me. I did it again, fascinated, then again. Then I started shaking it up and down, sideways, then diagonally. I could not believe what I was seeing on this primitive camera’s screen.
I was hooked.
I started doing all sorts of experiments on that phone for the next year. After about 15,000 images, I finally decided to purchase a camera. I did not know an f-stop from a bus stop. On a shoestring budget and not knowing what I was doing, I found a Canon point-and-shoot on special at Target.
It had no view finder and it had a fixed lens, but it did have Manual mode, so I learned how to master aperture, speed shutter, ISO, depth of field, and how to shoot using the LCD. All of these proved invaluable, and some of my best images to this day were taken with that humble beginner’s tool.
I now shoot on a Sony A3000, my lenses of choice are a kit 18-55m, a prime 50m f 1.8, and a tele 55-210mm.
I also honed my iPhone skills to take street and subway images and to exploit its apps for image manipulation potential on a variety of subjects.
I typically do not spend much time on any given technique or genre. I am very curious, and am always looking at how to stretch the envelope of what’s possible. I find myself often asking the question, “Gee, I wonder what would happen if I did . . . .?”
I have no formal training, but I do have mentors that I have discovered on Youtube and Instagram, where I have learned the technical nuts and bolts and the artistic/aesthetic aspects of the medium.
I am inspired not only by other photographers, but by painters, designers and architects. I give great credit to my wife Barbara, a painter, for encouragement and guidance.
