Looking at the World Through a Lens

Something that I have truly begun to love is Photography. I enjoy developing silver-gelatin prints in the darkroom on resin-coated paper, I enjoy capturing pictures and moments of places and people all around me during the day or night, and I like editing images digitally. I first learned how to manually adjust a camera (aperture and shutter speed) in my high school photography class. I didn't really understand it all at first, but near the end of that class it hit me. Ever since, I feel like I can capture anything I want in the way I want. In high school, I also learned a great deal about the darkroom, and I spent hours in there when I could. Fortunately, when I started my  first class here at college, I was told I was welcome to use the darkroom whenever I needed to. 


I took my first college photography class, wet darkroom photography, this past spring. I feel as though i excelled in many areas of the class, and having prior knowledge really gave me an advantage. I spent countless hours in the darkroom this past semester, so much that I was beginning to wonder if I were a vampire... ha ha. Anyway, now I am taking a night photography class, in which I originally chose to work with film once again instead of digital like the rest of the class. It was not only interesting to see what actually showed up on the negatives after developing the film, but the level of difficulty in developing prints exactly how I wanted them to be was surprising.  I find it a lot harder to work with film at night, and I do get to spend a ton of time in the dark room whenever I want (I spent 10 hours total just this week already). It's a bit creepy in there when I'm alone, but once I get on a roll with work, I forget the fact I'm the only one there.  


Tonight, during class, we went to the town square to shoot urban scenes. My teacher, who is also a very understanding and successful photographer, encouraged me to experiment with digital. He loaned me a camera to work with, and even though it was heart-breaking to set my 35mm film camera aside for once, I found that digital is 1,000,000 times easier. Even though I have worked with digital before, there's a different feeling you get when you've been working with film for such a long period of time. I like to stick to what I know I guess, but it doesn't hurt to add to my experience through experimentation.


I would say I'm more of a traditional artist, always learning things the hard way of how things were done before someone came along to make life easier. I enjoy learning that way. It helps me to embrace the subject and understand it on a whole new level. I'm that one kid in class who enjoyed drawing works from the "masters", and I love still life setups. Drawing still tops my list as one of my favorite trades, but photography is pushing itself to the top as well. As long as I can use my learned skills and knowledge someday in the future as an art teacher to help someone to embrace the art world like I do, I will be happy.


If you'd like to check out some of my work, mostly black and white photography done in the darkroom, you can go to this link:


http://frogfreak4379.deviantart.com/gallery/


I hope you find my photography interesting... 


Later. 
WA