I do not think I can accurately pinpoint a time in my life where I decided that photography is what I want to do. In high school I thought I wanted to work with computers, doing programming and such.
During my Sophomore year, I took an art course that dealt with computer graphics and working with software such as Bryce, Maya, and Carrara. Using the latter two (and later 3D Studio Max), I mostly messed around and tried to create add-ons for Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena. I also made an icy sword and a flaming lava mace (shut up, that’s what I thought was cool back then). In Bryce however, I made weird little landscapes with planets and moons. It is perhaps then where I caught on to the sensibility of framing and arranging objects in my landscapes.
When I left Westmont High and moved to Lisle, I took a photography course. Shortly after, I got myself a four megapixel Canon Powershot S40 (which actually shot in raw mode!) and started playing around. Photography became fascinating to me then. Using very rudimentary framing methods I picked up with the 3d design software and general technical know-how, I began playing around. Without all the rules, constraints, methods, and techniques I will have picked up in the coming years, I approached photography with a child-like curiosity and amazement at just what that little point-and-shoot could do. I can still argue that the S40 is tons better than most the point-and-shoots out there right now, despite the megapixel count, which only really limits the size I could print.
Anyway, the S40 had manual modes which I eventually worked my way up to. I scoured the interblag searching for definitions of apertures and shutter speeds and ISO settings and took shots after shots, just learning. I explored depth of field and longer exposures (I made ghosts!). I regret not saving most of the pictures from back then, but you can check out some of my early work here.
After a while, I began taking my camera to shows. In high school I actually had time to go to those every week or so. I absolutely loved what the camera let me do. And that’s where I’ll leave this post. I’ll try and explore more of this, as well as some other topics, tomorrow.
