All roads lead to photography

Family Roots

My grandmother always had a camera with her and would take hundreds of photos in a time where film was the media, which meant getting them developed. This trickled down through my family, with my mother taking family photos wherever we went.

Photo of my brother and I with our Grandmother

Honeymoon

I began my present day journey in preparation for my honeymoon, which could be a blog post all on its own for the plans. I wanted to have an up to date piece of technology to capture portions of this once in a lifetime trip. More on this later.

My Timeline

Childhood

My mother forced my older brother and I to participate in the Arts in Education program throughout elementary school. At the time I found it to be a lot of work, but I have effectively been a disciple of photography since a very young age. I have certainly gone through periods where I did not take many photos. This program in particular had you print a photo, frame it, and write a caption about where you took the photo.

Teenage Years

We always attended the Pittsburgh Vintage Gran Prix, PVGP for short. This weekend event turns the streets surrounding Schenly Park into a racetrack for vintage race cars. Along with that there is a marque of the year, with a large car show display throughout the golf course. I've always had a love for cars and photographing them.

College Years

I took a photography course in college as part of a liberal arts requirement, which in Engineering School was minimal. I can't say I remember too much about it or that it influenced me in any particular way.

Post college

After college there were only brief periods where I would take a lot of photos. Specific yearly car events like Waterfest in NJ or the PVGP. I sort of dropped photography for other hobbies. As social media began too expand, I found myself posting less after college and eventually ending up with a bit of a distaste for sharing everything all the time. Technology had evolved such that the camera tech in my iPhone caught up to the digital point and shoot camera I had purchased after graduation, I was taking less and less photographs. I was disinterested in taking pictures and posting them for other people, so I only took photos with an iPhone and pretty much only shared them with friends and family.

Present Day

I am challenging myself to step outside of my comfort zone and post more content. I post what I like, I write blog posts that give me value and while I hope it can provide value to others I am not mentally affected if no one but friends or family ever read my writing.

I am exited to share some of the how, after taking years off from photography. I have come back and tried to catch up in a field that is at the present day, not nearly as popular as video. I feel like there is so much for me to learn taking stills, that I have yet to venture into the video capabilities of my camera. This side of things interests me as well, the high production value YouTube channels like MKBHD and Peter McKinnon among others make me want to dive deep into film making, but it is a little bit overwhelming. I know starting is the hardest part and I just have to start somewhere.

Tools of the trade

Camera and Lenses

I will do a whole post on why I made these choices, but my current load out is the following:

• Sony A7IV
• Sony 16-35mm GM lens
• Sigma 24-70mm DG DN ART lens
• Tamron 70-180mm lens

I wanted the "trinity" of lenses and was trying to stay within a certain budget. I think this strikes a great balance, though I may have gone a slightly different path now that I have some experiences with all three of these lenses around subjects that I prefer shooting.

Lightroom and Photoshop

I have a subscription to Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop and plan on creating some content around the before and after images as I don't see a lot of people posting content like this and the technical details behind how someone achieved a certain look or style, often times, interests me more than the final image. I follow a local portrait photographer whom I could call an associate, who incidentally I met through a Cars and Coffee event. This man is an amazing portrait photographer and does a lot of behind the scenes for his work, always capturing his camera settings and what programs were used to touch up the images. That type of transparency to me adds so much value to those just starting out.

I learn a lot by doing, so while I've hopped in and played around with the sliders in Lightroom, I've also watched countless hours of YouTube and even taken a course on Udemy. I continue to learn the power of both Lightroom and Photoshop and can't wait to show some of my beginners tips and tricks such that someone else may become inspired enough to pick up a camera and just start.