I suppose the best place to begin would be to go back to what got me started with photography.

*Dreamy flashback/old film reel sequence*

… Nah, just kidding!

My mother spent a lot of time behind the camera while I was growing up. She was always the designated family photographer though it was only a hobby to her and family pictures were not her favorite things to take. Our outdoor storage building was converted to a darkroom when I was in elementary school and I remember the one time I was actually interested enough to ask her to let me develop a print. I was much too impatient to really appreciate the process at the time, and only resulted in a black and white print of a black cat, but later on I realized that was probably my first step in this direction.

One of my favorite photos taken by my mother.

Throughout my younger years, my mom always made sure I had at least a simple P&S film camera on hand, even though I didn’t use them very often except on vacations. It wasn’t until my college years that the photography bug officially took over. For Christmas of 2002, I was given my first digital camera, an Olympus D-520 point and shoot. I didn’t use it often until the summer of 2003, when boredom overcame me during the break. One day I simply went outside and took pictures of a few random objects and later uploaded them to my computer. None of the pictures were spectacular, but there was one shot of a tiny rose which caught my eye. It was nice, but missing… something. After trying several filters in the software that came with the camera, then  it clicked when sepia toning was added. Suddenly I realized.. I had taken a photograph that I actually liked! This was the moment the photography bug bit me.

Within a few months, I upgraded my camera to a Fuji Finepix S602z advanced point & shoot and I was taking, on average, almost 100 photos each day. My focus quickly turned to the wildlife around our home.. mostly insects. With the addition of a set of close-up filters, I delved deeper into close-up and macro photography of wildlife.

There was something that attracted me to the strange beauty of the tiny critters people usually considered gross or annoying, if they paid them any attention at all. Friends and family who saw my photographs often expressed how they never thought bugs could look so cool. This made me want to continue exploring the macro world, and in 2004 I upgraded again to a Nikon Coolpix 8700 advanced point and shoot, along with other accessories like a +10 macro filter. Closer. I began exploring other genres of photography but nothing quite held my attention the way macro photography did.

To this day macrophotography is still my favorite type of photography to do but since upgrading to an actual DSLR, a Canon 350D, in 2005, and obtaining several lenses, my focus has expanded quite a bit. For a short while I ran a wedding and portrait photography business, but quickly found it wasn’t suitable for me. I’ve dabbled in astrophotography, pets, architecture, portraits, aquatic (aquarium) photography,among others, and most recently.. abandonments. Urban exploration and, more often in my case since I live in Nowhere, Louisiana, rural abandonment exploration has become my second favorite.

I will try to post each time I do something that is, in the least bit, interesting, such as finding and exploring a new abandoned location, trying new techniques in post processing, or just general shenanigans. I enjoy the occasional DIY project, so you might see one of those pop up every now and then.

Well… I think that has pretty much gotten us up to date. I’ll stop babbling now and actually go find something to photograph!