More About Me
So, after being afforded the time to make this dream "go live", so to speak, thanks to the ice storm over the weekend, I have spent some time reviewing my new site, and found a few things I could tweak and adjust-- for example, noticed I went a little heavy on the Race Day photos in my Sports Gallery. My biggest collection of sports photos, and the ones I am most proud of and most likely to produce more of in the future, are high school softball, so that gallery is a little overbearing. Too many photos to browse through, and not a true representation of my work. Unless the viewer is an avid drag racing fan, in which case, enjoy! But I will be removing a few, and adding more softball soon, in an effort to make it easier to peruse.
Also noticed that my About page is a little lacking. Yes, it gives an insight into why I photograph, and how I feel about pursuing one's muse, but not a lot about me. So, in this post, I'll introduce myself a tad better.
Long ago and far away, before the kids, I used to take pictures of clouds. The sky. Thunderheads. To put this into perspective, I was born and raised in California's Central Valley. Not a lot of weather happens in California. Well, except for Tule fog, but that's a whole other story in itself. Anyhow, weather always fascinated me, especially thunderstorms. After all, something like that was a rare occurrence living in Calfornia. Once a year, maybe. Out there, you tend to get five years' worth of rain all at one time, and then you're done with it for a year or two. So when gorgeous thunderheads would form in the sky above, I was spellbound, and could not stop watching them shapeshift. And when thunder and lightning was produced, all the better! (Boy, I had no idea what would come much later in my life with our relocation to the Midwest!)
Enter a camera.
We always had a little point and shoot handy back in the day. You had to have one around for holidays and barbeques, you know. Who didn't? We even owned a Polaroid instamatic, still have it to this day, though film is tough to find. And this was back in the day when you had your little rolls of 110 or 35mm or whatever, that once you filled up 12 or 24 frames (imagine that-- limited to only 12 shots!), you then rolled down to the little Fotomat kiosk in the middle of a strip mall parking lot, dropped them off for processing, and pick them up in a day or two. It was anybody's guess what the quality or results would be, because, hey-- it was a basic $20 point-and-shoot, no settings, cheap film, and not a lot of talent holding the camera, soooo......
I started trying to capture the majesty, the light, the color of the towering clouds when they showed up. This was a tough job with a cheap camera and limited photography know-how. But the more I practiced, the better I got at noticing things: the quality of certain light, shadows, angles.....and then I discovered The Golden Hour! I must have shot rolls and rolls of skies and clouds over time. My husband used to actually make fun of me, in a good-natured way, because I would pay to have three rolls of film developed, only to come away with four pics from a trip to the river, three good (and lucky!) shots of clouds, and 29 underexposed/overexposed, out-of-focus, un-identifiable prints of who-knew-what. But those three lucky shots.....simply made me want more!
Since marvelous cloud sculptures were a rarity, I began to look around-- really LOOK around me wherever I went,taking notice of light, shadows, color, and details. I was hooked.At the time, I was very into watercolor painting, and pen-and-ink illustrating, and worked in a couple of different art supply, frame shops, learning knew skills and media. Since I'd been an artist all my life, light and color and beautiful subjects weren't new to me. My heart was definitely the heart of an artist. But capturing these things with a camera was such a different challenge, and drew me in further. Eventually, I wanted a newer camera, one with a little more control over what I was doing. I also did a lot of reading and studying on my own (yes, in a real library,another place I haunted on an almost daily basis for hours at a time.). This was, after all, before the days of the Interwebs and digital photography! Although I learned a lot about composition and light and such from photography volumes, that was quite applicable to my painting and drawing, a good camera and the ability to develop my own film was a hobby beyond my budget. So that idea stayed on the backburner for awhile longer. But a few cheap little point-and-shoots got workouts unto their deaths over the years that followed.
Fast forward a bit, past marriage, and the first child....and a new camera of course was needed! Can't have babies and no camera, right? I don't recall exactly which model I received first, but I finally received my first digital Kodak camera. It was a real simple, basic model, but wow! No more film, and no more keeping the bad shots, and the ability to preview before printing! (Boy, I need to get back into the habit of ditching the useless shots!) At this time, we also had a toddler who had discovered my markers and watercolors. Probably wasn't the smartest thing introducing her to fingerpaints, because she discovered wall murals, and eventually, Mom tired of cleaning the walls and had to retire the art supplies. But a new digital camera! This not only recorded everything our first child did, but opened me up to a whole new art medium. The rest is pretty much history up to now.Two more kids later, two more cameras, and a whole lot of practice and learning, (yes, fast forwarding again....the oldest is now a married adult, and the baby is now in college finally!) I am now fully immersed in my love of photography, and it has become my craft. (Maybe the word "obsession" is more appropriate here.)
Sometimes, I miss the watercolor paints and illustrating. Maybe I will pick up some brushes again someday. But in the last ten years since moving to Illinois, I have gained so much more technical know-how, more appreciation and understanding of my tool, and so much more technology at my disposal. I have had, through photojournaling our migration across the country, through documenting innumerable family events and kids' activities, through experimenting with my surrounding and even mundane subjects, gained a better understanding of my tools. The last thirty years of playing with cameras, and the last ten years of living in the Midwest, have given me invaluable opportunity to hone my craft. And much more than that, my time spent behind the lens has given me insights into myself, and fueled my love of photography to the point that I feel like it's time to share what I do, and set this part of myself free. Time to grow and bloom.
Kind of the same way the REAL thunderstorms I now shoot bloom over the Illinois prairies.