Columbine (on fine art paper) Photograph

Welcome and thanks for visiting! Each image is my original photograph. Sometimes 'straight out of the camera' with minimal adjustments is all that I need to get my message across, but more often I use various in-camera approaches, for example long exposure, depth compositing, selective focus, multiple exposure, or intentional camera movement to capture a particular moment or feeling. I might also use techniques of digital art such as photo collage or image blending to emphasize a unique connection or an experience or add hand painting with digital oil or watercolor brushes. ​I still remember the day I got started in photography. When I was a teen a close relative showed me (and eventually let me borrow) his beloved twin-lens reflex camera. The unique thing about this kind of camera is that it is held at the waist while the photographer looks down at the image on the ground glass at the top of the camera. Reflecting on it now, looking at the world in this way was probably my first attempt at creative vision. I've been shooting ever since. I soon learned how to how to process my own film negatives and make prints. It wasn't long before I tried my parents' patience by setting up my first darkroom in a closet under the stairs using the kitchen sink to regulate the temperature of my developer. Even back then with film and photographic paper I found ways to interpret my images. Of course most images were 'straight out of the camera' but I started to experiment. I learned about intentional camera movement and selective focus, except back then it wasn't always so intentional nor so selective. I learned how prevent the film in the camera from advancing so multiple shots would get exposed onto the same frame; how to 'solarize' my film by exposing it to flashes of light before putting it in the camera; how to make parts of a print lighter or darker by hovering paper cutouts between the enlarger and the printing easel; how to tilt and shake the easel holding the photographic to get unusual effects. I tried pretty much anything and everything, and still use some of those techniques today or at least a digital version of them. My first college was The Cooper School of Art where I enrolled as a photography major. I soon transferred to Cleveland State University where I continued to take photography coursework but I switched majors to get my degree in Education.