I was born and spent most of my life in Orange County California. I have, for as long as I can remember, had a love for photography.  I had many point and shoot cameras as a child and always loved getting the results from the lab.  This love for photography gradually grew over the years and many cameras passed through my hands.  Then came college.  I attended the University of San Diego where I studied Business Administration.  As an outlet for my creative side I took a couple of art classes and a photography class.  It was in this class that I learned all about the dark room and processing prints and film and I loved it.  It was like magic watching the images appear as you gently moved the photo paper in the developer.  I still wish I had a wet darkroom, but alas I must rely on computers and ink-jet printers for my images, oh well.  But still even without the traditional darkroom I love photography.  After college I kept shooting with traditional film cameras and I gradually got better at seeing images before clicking the shutter.  I slowly increased my number of “keepers” from each roll.  Then came the Digital SLR.  This totally kicked my learning into hyper-drive.  I no longer had to wait for the film to be processed at a lab and try to remember what i did when I was taking a particular picture, therefore knowing what to change to make it better next time.  Now I had instant feedback.  I believe this single aspect of digital technology has done more for photographers than any other.  Another advantage is that without the cost of film and developing I am able to take as many photos as I wish.  No longer do I need to worry if I can afford to buy more film or get prints made.  And of course I can’t forget Photoshop.

I am not a purist like many old school photographers.  I believe that the end resulting image is everything.  I don’t care what went into it, the image is itself the purpose of photography.  I know it’s the journey not the destination, right.  I still believe an image must stand on its own, it shouldn’t have to be explained, it should be paramount to the photographer.  Whether you are trying to make a statement or just depict beauty, it doesn’t matter how you got to the image, just that it is there to be seen.  Many new technologies are creating images that were impossible just a few years ago.  Some of my favorite new technologies are HDR imaging, Photo Stitching and Digital IR photography.  There are so many fascinating technological advancements happening all the time in photography.  It makes me so excited to be a photographer in this day and age.

From here I am going to pursue photogrphy in most of its forms and will be posting here on my site everything I find interesting along the way.

Stay tuned,

Micah