Photography is my teacher...

Dry brush at Lake Cuyamaca, San Diego, CA.

I think it is my love for technology that fuels my passion for photography. If I was never interested in how things work and what happens when you push a lot of buttons as a child, I don't think I would be a photographer today. I think the same theory applies to my love for social media and online teaching too... I love everything about computers (ahem..when they are happily responding to my wishes, that is..)

I took many years of photography classes in high school and college. It was difficult and frustrating at times, and very rewarding during others. I cherish the fact that I know how to load film canisters in the dark and process images in a darkroom.. and even though today's processing is all digital for me, the experience of learning those steps manually helps me think about how I am going to take images now.

I have been focusing (obsessing, really) over depth of field. Adjusting my aperture and speed  to reflect just the correct mood that I want to capture and sometimes taking many exposures of the same subject to get it just right. I like to envision the photo before it hits my sensor. 

Isolating my subject matter with just the right amount of bokeh is like painting! How many shapes are too many, how much blending is needed in the background...and where should I place this or that is all hammered out in my viewfinder. In our Chaos and Calm online mixed media workshop, we talk about painting this way... it didn't take me very long to make the connection to reading the information in my line of sight and how to apply it to a great abstract painting.

Of course my camera will automatically shoot whatever I want it to.. but where is the fun in that? I never let my camera dictate how an image should look. I am always on the quest for new information... like a good student to a good teacher.

Learning anything new these days? I'd love to hear from you!