How it all started…

Back in 2003 I attended a wedding in Europe of a family friend with my mom.  It was one of those party weeks/fun weddings that made me realize there was no longer any need for me to ever strive to have a cool wedding of my own, and just think of that one if/when I ever got hitched myself.  I’m pretty sure that a drive-thru quickie wedding in Vegas is more up my alley anyway.

Great, now what does that have to do with photography?  Well, for this trip my mom had purchased a camera for us to document the trip.  This was the first digital camera that I had ever had.  It was a good old Sony 3 megapixel pocket camera.  Actually did a nice job and still does.  Now for the most part, my photos were what I would call ‘snapshots’.  They captured a moment where you look back and smile, but there was no story being told and very little to keep a viewer gazing at one of my shots for longer than a second (including myself).  But when I got this shot and loaded it on my computer…I was somewhat pleased with myself.  Not the best image in the world, but certainly not bad for a guy standing in a tux during a heat wave in Europe with a pocket camera on auto mode.  Not quite sure it matches Victorias beauty, but it was the best I could do 🙂

So before I knew what aperture was, or what shutter speed to use, or  how to better frame a shot, or that this image looked even better because it happened to be taken during the ‘golden hour’…there was me and my pocket cam in auto mode.  It was only a couple years later when I began paying closer attention to photos that I would see and start asking “how did they do that and how can I do that”.  And eventually that lead me to where I am today which I would describe as being a ‘goal-oriented’ photographer.  Which basically means that while I’m not the best or a pro, I certainly would like to get closer to that higher platform.