My Photography

And your Photography...

  Yes, photography is personal and solely my way of looking at things mixed in with all the things I have learned from other people. Certainly, if you take one of my photography workshop training classes you need to know how I look at a picture from the initial click of the shutter to the finished product. Certainly, you need to know my goals for the students who take one of my photography workshop classes. Will my goals help your goals is a fair question to ask before you decide to take one of my Photography related workshop courses? 

   My courses aren't for someone who wants to run a high-volume portrait or commercial studio. And yes, I admire people who can put out high volume yet produce high-quality pictures - not an easy task.  No, my main goal is to show you the different ways you can craft a picture. If you put a frame around one of the pictures, you have crafted in one of my workshop courses and find yourself still looking at that picture months later, then I have accomplished my goals for your time spent with me.

   I am retired and have mostly worked in law enforcement and security. When I was in my early twenties I moved to New York City and invested my money in a Photography school that dealt with the many aspects of Photography including Portrait, Commercial and I even learned how to make a dye-transfer print. I had many ideas about the type of pictures I wanted to craft. Unfortunately, Photography software technologies weren't available for the type of pictures I wanted to craft. Many thanks to the digital photography and software revolution of the last several years.

   Fortunately, technology has advanced enough to allow someone like me who isn't a great technical photographer to make some interesting pictures. Things like masks, HDR Photography, blending, focus control and changing every aspect of your picture that fits your goals are now pretty easy to do. I like high contrast, saturated colors and have little respect for what the picture should look like. If your eyes keep coming back to the above picture than you might like the same type of pictures that I like.

   My ideas about taking a picture are similar yet different than most photographers. Similar in that I want my pictures to have a proper contrast with as many shades of color, highlights and shadow areas as I can get. I also want the main element of my picture to be in sharp focus with little grain. Where I am different is that I want my background also in sharp focus if possible. Obviously, if you shoot a portrait subject with a lens over 50mm that is not always possible. When I put a part of the picture out of focus in post production, I want to take my time to see whether the part of the picture I put out of focus serves to support the main element of the pictures and whatever goals I have for that picture. Sometimes I don't figure out my goals for that picture until I have spent a lot of time crafting that picture. My overall philosophy is that there should be a goal for every picture you take time to craft otherwise your picture is nothing more than a snapshot.

   The other difference between myself and other photographers is that when I shoot a picture, I am only at the starting point of crafting that picture. Things like focus, tonal range or even changing colors and taking things out of a picture and inserting other things in a picture are all elements that are looked at and re-looked at. In short, every inch of my picture is subject to change. I like taking pictures but I also enjoy the post production work of crafting a picture.

   And finally, the last thing that is different between myself and most photographers is that I won't press the shutter button until I like the composition of the scene and how the main and supporting elements support each other. Do I make bad decisions about composition and elements of the picture? Of course, I do, but I will throw out the following sentence as a defense. In failure, you learn about success, but only if you are paying attention.  I also like to refer to myself as a visual thief. I try to steal all that is best from a scene.