So, what’s this all about?

My personal philosophy on photography is this: I am not just a photographer. I am also a fan of photographers. I take great enjoyment from looking at other photographers work and find it extremely motivating. It often inspires me to try new things, and explore new genres. As with most businesses, photography is very competitive, and with the advent of digital photography, there are more and more photographers out there, thus making it more competitive still. Good, I say! It can only help the industry become better; force us to push boundaries into unexplored territory.

In the ten years I have been involved with photography I have noticed that photographers tend to fall into one of two categories.

The first is the selfless photographer. The selfless photographer is a teacher. Their altruistic nature compels them to pass on their knowledge to the betterment of the industry. In my experience these folks tend to be self taught and remember well their own experiences while trying to learn their craft with the type of photographer that I will describe next.

The second is the self-serving photographer. They believe the business of photography is a war with every other photographer. They protect their ideas and don’t share anything.

In case you haven’t guessed already, I am not one of those curmudgeons who huddles in their darkroom alone protecting their trade secrets in a futile effort to stave off any competitors. People like that have petrified and stopped learning. They feel that they know all there is to know about photography. Therefore their skills never evolve or grow. That’s fine with me. It’s their photographic funeral, so to speak. Photography is by its very nature creative and fluid. It never stays still. The fundamentals do, but uses of those fundamentals do not. In a very Karma-like way, I believe the more we share our ideas and techniques, the more we will receive. Thus our knowledge is expanded.

This was my impetus for starting this blog. I have by no means learned even a fraction of the things I’d like to about this craft…and I never will, I’m sure. But I’ll do my best. And what I learn I will pass on here as best I can. I’m sure this blog will evolve quite a bit structurally over time, but it will always be about learning more about all the aspects of photography.