The Journey

My Photographic Background

June 5, 2011 

I began taking pictures when I was kid. Here I began my love of B&W photography: Mom gave me her little Brownie box camera when I was about 7 years old. She showed me how to load the film & I was off and shooting. I was a film hog.  My dogs, horses, brothers and friends were my first subjects. I spent a good chunk of my allowance on film & devevoping.   

Over the years I acquired most every model of instamatic type camera... remember the 110 & 126 models? I think I even have a few undeveloped cartridges stashed away in a box somewhere... 

More to come later....

Entry 2: added November 16, 2011

~ More of my background in Photography ~

Waaaaaaaay Back sometime in the 70's, let's say Late 70's, while working on my AA at Cosumnes River College/JC which led to a BA in Animal Biology at CSUS/Sac State, I took a photography class. I really loved the science classes... but wanted to take a class with less stress, for pure enjoyment. Well, the photography fires inside were rekindled!!!

NOW I HAD to Have a NEW Camera! SLR here I come. My first 35mm SLR - A MINOLTA SRT-SC-II (all manual controls).

Then... a new zoom lens... a SLIK tripod, a flash, a wide angle lens, macro accessories, 2x teleconverter... Oh yeah... another camera body was needed! I had to be able to shoot B&W and Color at the same time!!! My 2nd 35mm SLR - a MINOLTA XD-5 + another zoom lens & a film winder (like I couldn't shoot up a ton of film fast enough without it). The XD-5 had auto aperture and shutter modes... but I NEVER moved it out of M = manual.

I took a photography class every semester - By the time I graduated from Sac State, I had taken Every Photography Course offered and turned to applying for Independent studies in Photography. I had more than enough Photography units for a minor... now I wish I had applied for it. It would have gone well with my minor in chemistry. My course work in photography gets the credit for preventing my total meltdown & implosion while attaining my BA. The photo lab at Sac State was my sanctuary. 

The time I was able to spend in the lab at school... just was not enough... 

Dad... do you think we can clean out the washhouse and turn it into a darkroom? 

A Bessler Enlarger + an El-Nikkor lens... mmm, mmm, mmm. 

I still miss the smell of fixer & developer... & the scent of a new can of Fuji or Kodak film being rolled onto cartridges.

(My darkroom equipment was retired upon marriage & kids... time and funds went elsewhere... but there is light... I keep a close eye on it... stashed away just waiting... for my retirement... and maybe the Bessler will shine once more.)

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I am a confessed film hog & shutter addict...

(The introduction of Digital Photography has saved me a fortune in film and developing costs).

Thank you to my wonderful supportive husband: That 16GB Memory Stick has helped me to continue my addiction to clicking that shutter! The only thing holding me back now is battery life. 

I was & continue to be a shooting fiend. These days: It is nothing for me to shoot 300-500 pics during one evening of kite flying or an afternoon with my granddaughters. I recently spent about 15 minutes in my Mom's Rose Garden... I managed to click off about 100 shots before my battery died.... (6/5/2011)

August 2011

Ok... I did it!!!!

I have finally made the leap into the DSLR format. I can only afford to do this once... so I had to be sure to purchase the camera I would be happy with for a verrrrrry long time. My 35mm SLR cameras are Minolta... but, they went away :( and SONY took over. Cannons & Nikons never felt right in my hand after so many years of hanging on to a Minolta. Last month I picked up a SONY alpha 580 DSLR.... and magic happened. It felt like it had been in my hand forever. Great feeling!!!

Up until now (August 7, 2011)... all of the photographs here on my Photo Swarm site have been shot with my awesome little 12.1 mega pixel SONY DSC-W200 Cybershot.  

I love my new SONY alpha 580! So far, (I have had it for 6 weeks now...) I have shot over 10,000 images... With a 32GB card and 2 batteries I am a happy shooter and continue to FEED my shutter addiction.

Stay Tuned: There is still more to follow... in the continuing saga of my photographic Journey

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Updating from my Old PhotoSwarm Page (5-19-2023)

5/18/2013: It has been a while since my last update. I have been busy! Let's play a little catch up....................

Not knowing much about digital photography, I decided to take a class. I took a beginning class from McKay Photography Academy (September 2011). I loved the class so much, taught by David and Ally McKay, I signed up for the intermediate photography class the next night and beginning Photoshop class by Jeff Dachowski on the following night. 

Talk about getting the Photographic Fires Burning!!!

Thank you David & Ally for giving photography back to my soul!!!

Jeff, thank you for my introduction to digital processing!

 

I continue to take classes and photo-safari with McKay Photography and Vison Culture as often as I can.

I have gone on Safari in Old Sacramento, San Franciso, Yosemite National Park, and Animals of Montana and  taken Photoshop 201 and attended their Pro Academy.

Another Safari to Animals of Montana is scheduled for January 2014. We will be photographing the animals (snow leopard, siberian tiger, grizzly bears, cougars...) in the snow for 2 days, then venturing into Yellowstone National Park for a 2 day photography adventure.

 

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Camera Equiment Update: (May 2012)

It seems that having one DSLR camera body was not enough. Yes, I now have a second SONY a580.

In the day of using SLR 35mm, I carried 2 bodies so I could shoot color & black and white film at the same time… or shoot with 2 different films… without having to change out film.

I have 2 DSLR’s so I can have a long and a short lens on at the same time. No, I am not too lazy to change lenses… since I do a lot of photography at kite festivals… there is no time to change lenses without missing out on some great images. Besides, changing lenses at the beach, or in the desert under windy conditions (which are best for kiting)… opens the camera up too often for gunk to get inside. It is tough enough to keep the outside clean under those conditions. Have I made my case for having 2 cameras yet?  =D

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 Now, let’s talk lenses.

I do have the 18-55mm lens that came with the 1^st body and the 75-300mm that I added to the kit. They are great lenses!

But, Thinking I was in tall clover having all of the Minolta MD mount lenses for my SLR’s soon changed. I had been out of the loop since before the first auto lenses and change over to Konica/Minolta and a new mount. Ok… I found an adapter for my old MD mount lenses and they work fine… manually, which was because I hadn’t used auto-modes or auto-focus in the past. I soon fell in love with auto-focus, getting older… the vision and reflexes are not what they used to be. I went to my first swap meet and found some middle-aged Konica/Minolta MA mount lenses for a nice price and soon needed a larger camera bag.

….So, when I got my 2^nd camera body,

I was also offered the New Tokina 11-16mm f2.8.

I jumped on that. What an awesome lens!!!

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 September 2012:

Getting ready for the trip of a lifetime: I am going to Bozeman, Montana with McKay Photography Academy! We will be photographing big predator animals at Animals of Montana. Can you say “Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!”… ? Wow! Amazing!!!!

I have not flow for over 20 years… more to worry about. Need to take all that camera equipment and a laptop to work on images every night in the hotel. Oh yeah, I need to pack clothes too! Planning did not keep the last minute packing panic away….. Well, I lived through it…. And now, I am planning a return trip in January 2014…. In the SNOW! Stay tuned for that adventure.

While in Bozeman, our group was at the local camera store picking up lens rentals and other needed items…. While browsing, I saw this big beautiful 150mm-500mm Sigma lens, just sitting there in the display case… last night they said they didn’t have any SONY stuff,,,,,,,

So, Ummm… is that a SONY mount on that lens? Oh, why, yes it is. Hmmmm, “David, Jeff.. Is this a good lens?” ….. You might say, this was the best impulse buy I have ever made. Off to shoot Lions, Tigers, Bears, Wolves, Snow Leopard, Bobcat, Lynx and more!!!!!

Did I mention that my dear old trusty SLIK tripod gave up the ghost? .... Thank you wonderful, fantastic husband for the new carbon fiber light weight, super strong, Manfrotto tripod... oh, and that Manfrotto head we picked up at the swap meet... perfect match! 

 

Since May of 2011, my husband, John, and I have been attending and flying at every kite festival we can get to. In addition to flying I take photographs of all the fliers and kites then post them on my websites and on facebook to share with the public and kiting community.

We have met and become friends with some very awesome people in the kiting community. Last summer, 2012, one such friend, Amy Doran, put me in contact with Phil Broder, the publisher of AKA’s Kiting Magazine, The Journal of the American Kitefliers Association, when he needed some images from festivals I had photographed.

Amazingly, he published my images in the next 2 editions; Autumn 2012 & Winter 2012; currently one of my images is on the cover of the latest edition, Spring 2013.

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May 2013:

Next up, some of my images are being used in the program for the 2013 Southern Oregon Kite Festival, in Brookings, Oregon.

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It is really great to be able to combine my passions for my husband, photography and kite flying. Life is wonderful. Live & Love every moment you have!!! 

Thank you to my husband and best friend. He is my biggest fan and supporter... if not for his gentle nudging, I would not have a DSLR.. or 2. 

Yes, I am still a shutter addict and completely happy with a growing supply of extra batteries and a variety of 16 and 32 GB SD Cards ... and 2 TB external drives to backup those 100,000+ images I have made in just not quite 2 years.

5/18/2013

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