Thanks to advanced cameras in cellphones, almost everyone is a photographer now. This is wonderful! Many of you are discovering your natural creativity and sense of play now that you have a camera and editing tools in your pocket. Homegrown photojournalism, portrait photography, travelogues, and candid shots of daily life are now in the hands of us all. More people now have a deeper appreciation of the joys and challenges of capturing that amazing image. We see the unique vision of each individual revealed and made available through social media. Many become inspired to take the next step with more advanced cameras. Much has changed since I began this website. You, my visitors, whether new or familiar are now more sophisticated in image appreciation. Most of you are now fellow creatives, however informally. Welcome! I hope my work inspires your own creativity.
Photography brings out my inner child. I can see and capture experiences from new vantage points. Butterflies and caterpillars now have expressive faces; flowers have amazing texture; I can capture “wild kingdom” moments that once seemed like impossible adventures only seen on TV. I am more aware of my surroundings as I look for those glimpses of beauty in each day. Some images inspire me to paint. Others encourage me to experiment with digital art forms. Many just make me happy as they are. All of them help me spotlight the daily wonders that surround us all.
Photographs do not replace the work and need for sketches and color studies, but they wonderfully supplement these traditional exercises in developing the finished image. My development as a photographer has strengthened my painting skills, and my development as a painter has deepened my appreciation of the photograph as a unique platform of artistic expression.
Photography allows me to explore the nature and needs of the image itself, apart from the process of image creation. I can capture and review images with wonderful speed, allowing me to experiment freely and quickly with a variety of compositions and light conditions. I can frame and explore different angles and discover the story within the images for later development. I can explore points of view that are impractical from a drawing vantage point
Photography has also taught me to appreciate the complexity of vision, the richness of what our eyes see as opposed to the limits of the camera and additional limits of the printing process. Working with other artists on an identical subject with the same materials, I witnessed how the results were beautiful and richly unique. The same is true in photography. Each individual applies a slightly different angle, focus, framing, etc., even when photographing the same subject with similar equipment at the same time. Some will close in on a wonderful, intimate detail, others will pull back for the subject’s place in larger surroundings, others might capture the subject in a unique but passing moment, and the possibilities go on. Some have the gift of telling a story in a single frame while others show us a gift of beauty within the mundane.
Today holds something beautiful — have you found it yet?
