Portal

Shot with my Pentax K10D with a Lensbaby Muse lens (2.8 aperture, 1/90 shutter speed).

Also viewable in my Flickr Photostream.

Qualifications

So, the all-important question that is asked of any photo blogger:

What qualifications do I have to be talking about photography?

It's an easy answer: None.

I was given a camera when I was young - it was a little 35mm point-and-shoot box camera, but it sparked an interest in photography for me.

I took a photography class a few years later as junior high school student. While in that class, I was given my first SLR, a Vivitar V2000. Twenty years later, it is still my primary film camera.

And here's the inevitable list of Other Cameras:

In 2005, I purchased my first digital camera - a Polaroid i1032 point-and-shoot that just gobbled up any AA batteries I was brave enough to insert.

In 2007, I used a severance package to purchase a Pentax K10D, which is now my primary digital camera. It can use the same lenses as the Vivitar film camera - and I've picked up a fair number of those, including some fun ones.

A year or so later, I picked up a secondary digital camera, a Pentax Optio M40. A point-and-shoot that also does some video.

In the summer of 2011, I visited my wife's family and her uncle gave me a Polaroid Land Camera 210.

Once I had that working, a customer noticed it. "I have something that I think you'll like," he told me. "I just need to bring it in."

It turned out to be four somethings, which were brought in to show me a few months ago.

He not only showed them to me, but he gave them to me.  A Pacemaker Crown Graphic, a Komaflex-S, and two Polaroids designed for the 600 series film.

I'll write more about the cameras and my results thus far in future posts. Unless you get bored and wander off.

Hotel Roof

This shot was taken out our hotel window at a rececnt convention. In the background, you can see the train bridge across the Columbia River (which separates Washington State from Oregon).

The photo was taken with a Polaroid OneStep 600 loaded with Impossible Project B&W film.

It is currently the background for the blog, and can also be found in my Flickr photostream.

Another Blog?

Those of you who know me in person (or who follow me elsewhere) are probably aware of this, but I have a number of active blogs, operating on a variety of schedules. The most notable of my blogs is Talking Game. This blog will be less active than many of the others, however.  Don't look for weekly updates or anything silly like that - I'll post when I have something to say and a few minutes to spare. But no more than once per week (although I may schedule posts into the future for a bit until I get the backlog of Things I Want To Say out of my system.

So why another blog?

Because I love photography and don't really have anywhere good to discuss it. Over the last few years, I've become very accustomed to discussion by blog post, and I'm used to Blogger's interface.  It has all of the features I need and several that I don't. While I could probably do this as a Tumblr, I'm too used to Blogger's interface.

With all of that said, here is what I'm going to be doing here:

Writing about photography and posting some of my favorite shots.

I'm not an expert. I'm not a master. I don't have tips and tricks (that I know of). I don't have a Five-Step Shoot Moar Better Plan to sell you on.  In fact, I'm not selling anything at all here.

The photos that I post here will either be mine or will be available under a Creative Commons license with appropriate attribution. I will make it clear which ones are mine and which aren't. And this includes the background image for the blog (which is one of mine).

Speaking of Creative Commons: The text of this blog will (once I get my act together) be released under a non-commercial attribution license, with a link that will appear in one of the sidebar gadgets. But that's a bit of research and a few weeks in the future.

Meanwhile, sit back and enjoy.