A Photographer's Journal

Series 1

I am so pleased that I purchased my new lens (Nikon 70-200mm) prior to my vacation. It's a great semi all-purpose lens, and really contributed to the quality of some of my photos this trip to Las Vegas and Truckee. Completely a great bargain for the quality.

But I HATE power lines. For the past few years they have been making an appearance in many of my city, landscape and scenery pics. I was trained to be a photojournalist rather than a artistic photographer, and was taught that it is a major violation to alter photos because it makes them false, ie. "to remove a power line is lying about the setting or place" therefore I've had the hardest time making alterations to photos. Well, I'm not a photojournalist now, so I'm slowly stepping out on the limb. I realize now, that to keep up with competition, it's almost always a necessity to brighten, crop, etc., to make an image more appealing. While it's best just to aim for natural skill, circumstances don't always allow one to get that flawlessly stunning image a perfectionist so craves. (For instance on the photo below- I LOVE the contrast of reflection, but the ducks need to be lighter. I made no modifications to this image, but in order to be truly compelling, their may need to be some minor adjustments.)

Thus, I take many shots of the same thing, standing in a different angle, positioning the lighting ever so lightly different, zoom, pan out, you get the picture... that's way I always max out my memory card and admit to the rookie move of not having a spare one hand, or forgetting to charge the battery that night.

It's funny at the end of the day, because the photos you have the greatest expectations for, sometimes just never quite turn out the way your hoped for, and that can be ok if you get photos in turn that turn out fantastic that you never saw coming or planned for-- kind of like life's little rule of thumb.

It's an odd thing looking at the world through the eyes of a photographer, you learn to see the world in a little tiny framed box, and love playing with that frame. The people I'm traveling with sometimes who aren't as into photography as I am, sometimes don't understand that when you see something compelling, you must stop and capture it at once. That opportunity to get the same image sometimes never exists... ie, the time of day, weather, circumstances. I always like to shoot as much as I can the first couple of days, as I call it, "the awe and wonder" of the tourist or seeing things for the first time. Things are never quite the same on the third or fourth day upon location, by that time the "awe and wonder" or newness has already run it's course.

What are some of the things you've learned along the way?

Have a great weekend!