In some future post(s) I may ramble a bit about my years of film photography and darkroom work; I shot my last rolls of film, using my Pentax 6x7, in the late 90s.
Once I started getting my hands on digital cameras in the early aughts, I became obsessed for several years with learning the ins and outs of that world. I attended four Photoshop World conferences and dove in to all things Adobe. As it related directly to my work at the University of Arizona (I ran a virtual reality lab for 12 years or so) I was able to learn using high end Nikon cameras and the fastest up-to-date Macs on the market (Thanks, limell’!).
In writing about these photographs (and many other things I’ve been sharing on the BLOG), I was reminded of a paragraph in Robertson Davies’ novel “Fifth Business” – “I had schooled myself since the war days never to speak of my enthusiasms; when other people did not share them, which was usual, I was hurt and my pleasure diminished; why was I always excited about things other people did not care about? But I could not hold in. I boasted a little in the Common Room that I had received an acceptance from Analecta; my colleagues looked uncomprehendingly, like cows at a passing train, and went on talking about Brebner’s extraordinary hole-in-one the day before.”
I can’t hold in so all together now…moooooooo…moooooo… ”…did you hear about Tiger’s legs? He was….”
In 2007-2008 I was messing around with a macro lens and starting shooting small objects in my collection of stuff. It seems to me that seeing the beauty in the everyday is why people ‘collect’ things, which was my primary motivation in this photography project.
I’ll dole these out in small doses of six…hope you enjoy!
And now, some 19th century philosophy to cheer you up.