Blue Hour … Sun Has Set

It is not easy for me to answer a simple question like “What type of photographer are you?”  The reason it isn’t so simple to answer is because I keep changing … sometimes on a daily basis.  One day I’m a travel photographer, another a street photographer, another a wildlife photographer, another a landscape photographer, and sometimes a documentary photographer, and on and on.

It is a rare day that I don’t hope to take a picture.  Some days it might be with a small pocket camera, others it might be with a mirror-less compact system camera, and other days it might be with a DSLR.  My choice of camera depends upon what I expect to shoot.  If I don’t think there is much chance of seeing anything photogenic, I might put a small pocket camera in my pocket, but that doesn’t happen very much lately.  If I know I will be around people in confined spaces or indoors, I generally pick up the Fuji X100 since it is small, discreet, and good in low light.  If I’m looking for wildlife, I’ll take the Pentax K-5 with the 55 – 300 mm lens and do most of my shooting at the maximum 300 mm.  If the weather is really on the damp side, I take the K-5 with the weather resistant 18 – 55 mm lens.  If I’m traveling in cities and countries without much wildlife, I usually just use a discreet camera and enjoy capturing scenes of people within their environment along with the urban and country landscapes.  If traveling in countries with lots of wildlife I usually take a camera with a long zoom.

But there are other types of photography and one of them is becoming my favorite lately.  It is capturing details of older architecture, flowers, decay, or what-ever.  To a large extent, I have gravitated in this direction since it is what I see most when I get out and about around Hanover, PA.  Most people think I prefer wildlife since they see so much of it lately in my blog, but I don’t.  They see so much of it since I usually don’t venture far in my walks and thus I photograph the few things I see within Homewood at Plum Creek which is mostly wildlife … or the sky.

When you get right down to it, I’m an opportunistic photographer.  I love capturing views that others didn’t see and then sharing them.  I don’t really have any great attachment to any single type of camera.  The camera is just the tool for capturing the image and my computer and software are my other tools for developing the image into the view as I see it.  My tools change with time as will the subject within my images, and even my styles change depending upon the mood of the scene.  What will stay constant is my desire to see and capture images as often as I can.  What you will probably notice within my blog are the changes on the periphery such as the ever-changing subjects, and cameras, and how I display my images.  What does not change is my desire to keep trying to hone my vision, and to keep trying to refine the way I portray my vision through different styles.  To shoot often, and to practice continuously, currently requires that I be an opportunistic photographer.  I’m always seeking to improve and I cannot improve without practicing; therefore, I’m an opportunistic photographer who shoots everything.  But maybe I won’t always be this way.

In my dreams I would like to be known for my style and type of photography.  I would like to not have my cameras and current conditions dictate my photography. I will always seek to find the style and subject that I most enjoy along with the best camera, lens, and software for expressing it.