When in high school, I had to choose electives to take. I did not like shop, or wood working, or working on car so my choices were very limited. And than there was all the art classes. I did not see myself as an artist. So my choices were limited to drawing (engineering) and Photography. And this was my two choices all through high school. So I carried a camera bag and a plans tube.
With the Photography class, this meant getting a real good camera. We had neighbor down the street that took picture professionally. He came down and looked at what the course required and gave me some tips on taking pictures. So went went out and got a Minolta X700. At the time it was one of the best 35 mm film cameras out there.
I loved the classes and trying to find subjects for my pictures. My first picture I ever printed from the class was of turtles setting on a log at the Phoenix Zoo. My mom framed it and had it hanging in there bathroom for years. But the adventure every week was to find that one subject that was good enough to print. I would have to learn about lighting and what was the best opening of the aperture. I would learn about field of depth. I spent so much time in the darkroom, that there were time I would come out of it and the teacher would say, I did not even know you were here today. Over time, I had gotten a tripod, a flash, an extra lens, and a camera bag.
My camera went on every trip with me. It even went with me to Ireland on my mission. On my way home, I I was going through one of the security check points at Heathrow Airport, and just as I was boarding the plane to go back to the states, I realized that I did not have my traveling bag. This had my scriptures and my camera. I rushed back to the check point but it was not there. So I got on the plane, knowing that I had lost my camera. I got off the plane at LAX and was going to retrieve my luggage to go through customs, when my name is called. So I went to where I was to go, and here was my bag, with everything there. They noticed it at the checkpoint, and ran it down to the ramp, and they put it one the plane before it left.
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| Castle Rock, taken with the Minolta X700 |
One of my favorite places to take pictures at was South Eastern Utah. The rock formation, the colors so rich. And Moab became the home base for this. I could count on a few stops in Monument Valley on the way up, or the way back, always seeing something new. But Moab, was at the center of it all. From Arches, Indian painting on the rocks, rock formation, the tree covered mountain country to canyon country. I have been back several times, and there are still places that I want to visit and shoot.
I was at the San Diego Wild Animal Park,when I realized that I had really gotten lazy in taking pictures. The X700 has a feature where you can lock in (on some lens) the aperture, but you had to still get the subject in focus. I had become some what a point and shoot photographer, not thinking of lighting or anything else. I watched these other photographers, with there big lens, waiting around for the perfect pictures. I had forgotten about the art of taken pictures. And that day forward, I tried to keep my camera off of program.
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| The Road to Monument Valley coming from Mexican Hat, Utah taken 2007 with the Nikon D90. |
Some time in the late 90's I came home from work and discovered that someone had broken into our house. They took the easy stuff, like the stereo, and T.V.'s, jewelry, and my camera. I was lucky, they just got my camera and not all of my equipment. This happened around the time that we were going to Ireland and so I went and bought a replacement camera. That is right I, bought another X700.
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| Taken in the La Sal Mountain 2007, Nikon D90 |
I want to share my pictures, and scanning all the pictures I had taken over the years required a lot of work. Everyone had moved to digital cameras. So I talked my mom into to getting me a new camera as a early birthday peasant. A Nikon D90, one of the top of the line cameras at the time. And it was some what a professional type SLR. I liked the Nikon, because if you did not like the auto setting that the camera selected, you could go completely manual. And I have done this at time. Plus I could take a lot of pictures and save it on a memory card.
I still use both cameras. Most of the time I keep black and white film in the Minolta, even through I can do the same thing to a digital picture. With my camera skills I have been asked to take picture for the ward that I lived in. I was even given the calling of ward photographer. My first assignment was to try to get pictures of everyone in the ward for the ward web page. Oh the one thing that I hate, taking pictures of people. Over the years, I have taken pictures for many of the ward activities, and different groups in the ward.
Losing my job of almost 17 years in 2009 I had to find something to do. This something was working on building a company around a conversion kit that my dad had designed for Triumph TR models. I would help write and add picture to a manual, build a web site and make pamphlets for the business.
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| Eaglegate Bell Housing and Shifter on a Toyota W58 Transmission 2010, Nikon D90 |
I have also been asked to take pictures for three weddings. The first one was for my wife's sister. Then the one I did a few years ago that was a disaster in so many ways.
You can read about it here. And then for my father's last year. I guess that I can take pictures of people, if I really do care about them.
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| My Sister and Jensen April 2013, Nikon D90 |
I still enjoy taking pictures with my Minolta. But the Nikon does make things a lot easier to print. And I hope to keep taking great pictures.
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| Mount Rainer July 2013, Nikon D90 |
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| Clear Lake and Mount Rainer, July 2013, Nikon D90 |
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