Jim McClain
Veteran
- Location
- Teh REAL Northern California
It was the early 1980s that I began to make photos I thought had something more than just snapshot quality. I had a good job, so I bought my first interchangeable lens camera, a Canon A1. It hung on my shoulder nearly everywhere I went and was pressed against my eye a LOT (or I would sometimes shoot from the hip, as I did with the photo below). It just seemed like I could express myself best this way. I was always socially clumsy.
Unfortunately, this was also a period of my life where drugs and alcohol had just about taken over and in the mid-80s, I sold my A1 and some other stuff I treasured so I could get high again. THEN I got sober.
For the next nearly 30 years, I always had a point & shoot around somewhere. I did floors, so I shot lots of pics of flooring jobs and the occasional shot of a pleasant autumn day, an interesting building, a pretty girl, but nothing that gave me that... you know, that feeling.
I had to retire due to health and stayed home a lot for several years without picking up a camera. Channel surfing one day, I saw a home improvement project and realized I knew how to do all of that, so I decided, with my landlord's permission, to remodel my apartment. I began to shoot a lot of pictures to document the changes. I kinda got into it - the remodeling AND the photo taking. Just not the making yet.
For extra money to supplement my disability pension, I was doing some webmastering for a hunting website. It involved editing landscape photos (yes, there were dead animals too) that were shot by hunters using mostly smartphone cameras. Every time I would think, ya know, I could do better than this and there wouldn't be any blood in mine. So, I bought a Panasonic FZ-200. Yeah, I know, but I didn't want to blow a lot of dough on something I wasn't sure I would be all that into.
Now, I realize that isn't a great photo, but it was the one that gave me that feeling I was looking for. And that feeling said, get yourself an interchangeable lens camera. So, I got a Nikon D5300 and a few lenses. And a tripod. And a bigger bag.
From the D5300, I graduated to a D810, then some Tamron zooms and more gear than I knew what to do with (well, I thought I would use it all, but it turns out some of it just took up space). Again, everywhere I went, the camera bag went. I was on facebook and had lots of "friends" liking and commenting on my photos - even though I knew some of them weren't worthy, but I did get lots of practice with the software, as well as the camera gear.
I was encouraged to enter photos in the local county fair. I had friends tell me which ones to enter (trusted friends, not the FB ones that liked even the ugly shots), so I entered 19 photos in a number of different categories. I won 13 ribbons on 12 photos. Talk about an ego boost. But the thing was, I was really enjoying the craft and artistry of it.
It's not easy to get out every day to make photos because I have lung disease. Some days I just don't have the energy, but I was out there mostly doing landscapes and townscapes and occasionally people. There was always something inspiring to encourage me along. But when 2018 came along, something changed. I deleted my facebook account because I was turning into an ass by commenting on other people's political posts. I found it very hard to stop, so I just shut my account down. I got involved in woodworking (which I shouldn't really do with all the sawdust and face masks, which make it even more difficult to breathe, but I love it). More and more I left the camera gear home. One of my last photos was from March and it's not that good, compared to what I've done before (not that those are all that great either, but better than this).
I didn't shoot a single photo all summer. What I need is inspiration. Then I saw a post in a webmaster forum I belong to and recognized him as one of the moderators from a vBulletin related add-on, vBadvanced. In his signature was a link to this forum, so here I am. This is my first post here. I'll look around and try to post some and hope seeing some of your work and reading some ideas and opinions and maybe get some inspiration going on.
Thanks for reading this long post. I tend to be verbose sometimes. I'm 69, so I prob'ly won't change, but I am aware of the tendency for some people to skip long posts. It's okay.
Unfortunately, this was also a period of my life where drugs and alcohol had just about taken over and in the mid-80s, I sold my A1 and some other stuff I treasured so I could get high again. THEN I got sober.
For the next nearly 30 years, I always had a point & shoot around somewhere. I did floors, so I shot lots of pics of flooring jobs and the occasional shot of a pleasant autumn day, an interesting building, a pretty girl, but nothing that gave me that... you know, that feeling.
I had to retire due to health and stayed home a lot for several years without picking up a camera. Channel surfing one day, I saw a home improvement project and realized I knew how to do all of that, so I decided, with my landlord's permission, to remodel my apartment. I began to shoot a lot of pictures to document the changes. I kinda got into it - the remodeling AND the photo taking. Just not the making yet.
For extra money to supplement my disability pension, I was doing some webmastering for a hunting website. It involved editing landscape photos (yes, there were dead animals too) that were shot by hunters using mostly smartphone cameras. Every time I would think, ya know, I could do better than this and there wouldn't be any blood in mine. So, I bought a Panasonic FZ-200. Yeah, I know, but I didn't want to blow a lot of dough on something I wasn't sure I would be all that into.
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Now, I realize that isn't a great photo, but it was the one that gave me that feeling I was looking for. And that feeling said, get yourself an interchangeable lens camera. So, I got a Nikon D5300 and a few lenses. And a tripod. And a bigger bag.
From the D5300, I graduated to a D810, then some Tamron zooms and more gear than I knew what to do with (well, I thought I would use it all, but it turns out some of it just took up space). Again, everywhere I went, the camera bag went. I was on facebook and had lots of "friends" liking and commenting on my photos - even though I knew some of them weren't worthy, but I did get lots of practice with the software, as well as the camera gear.
I was encouraged to enter photos in the local county fair. I had friends tell me which ones to enter (trusted friends, not the FB ones that liked even the ugly shots), so I entered 19 photos in a number of different categories. I won 13 ribbons on 12 photos. Talk about an ego boost. But the thing was, I was really enjoying the craft and artistry of it.
It's not easy to get out every day to make photos because I have lung disease. Some days I just don't have the energy, but I was out there mostly doing landscapes and townscapes and occasionally people. There was always something inspiring to encourage me along. But when 2018 came along, something changed. I deleted my facebook account because I was turning into an ass by commenting on other people's political posts. I found it very hard to stop, so I just shut my account down. I got involved in woodworking (which I shouldn't really do with all the sawdust and face masks, which make it even more difficult to breathe, but I love it). More and more I left the camera gear home. One of my last photos was from March and it's not that good, compared to what I've done before (not that those are all that great either, but better than this).
I didn't shoot a single photo all summer. What I need is inspiration. Then I saw a post in a webmaster forum I belong to and recognized him as one of the moderators from a vBulletin related add-on, vBadvanced. In his signature was a link to this forum, so here I am. This is my first post here. I'll look around and try to post some and hope seeing some of your work and reading some ideas and opinions and maybe get some inspiration going on.
Thanks for reading this long post. I tend to be verbose sometimes. I'm 69, so I prob'ly won't change, but I am aware of the tendency for some people to skip long posts. It's okay.