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I moved from California
to Colorado in 1991 but I couldn’t stand being landlocked so I
decided to join the Navy. In the summer of 1993, I took
the oath and became a Midshipman. I started becoming interested
in photography while on a summer sailing trip from Annapolis,
MD to Porstmouth, NH. The large, geometric shapes of the sails
captivated me and I photographed them with a cheap, disposable
camera. The prints from that trip surprised me and from that
point on, I knew I wanted to become a photographer. I bought an inexpensive point and shoot camera and from Annapolis to
New York to Nova Scotia, I took that camera with me everywhere
the Navy sent me. I was consumed with a passion to capture everything
I saw. I had no clue about exposure, but I experimented with
composition and taking photos from odd perspectives. I also
went to the galleries and was especially inspired by the works
of Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
After graduating from
Annapolis in 1997, I went to Newport, RI for Surface Warfare
Officer School and purchased my first digital camera, a Ricoh
RDC-300. After reporting aboard my first ship in San Diego, I went on a short
3-month deployment to the Caribbean in support of counter-narcotics
operations. We intercepted several “go-fasts” (speedboats
used for running drugs) and destroyed several million dollars
worth of pure, uncut cocaine. We also made port visits to Mexico,
Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Curacao, and Colombia.
Unlike the inexpensive point and shoot camera I had been using
up until that point, however, the $400 Ricoh proved disappointingly
inadequate in capturing my experience. Thus, my first impression
of digital photography was quite bad.
After returning home
to San Diego, I did extensive research and purchased my first
35mm SLR, a used Nikon FA with nothing but a 50mm f1.8 lens. I walked
almost every weekend from my tiny studio in Little Italy to
Seaport Village and the Gaslamp Quarter with my FA in hand,
photographing everything from the architecture to the homeless.
I read every book I could about exposure and controlling depth-of-field
and applied what I learned every chance I got. I also spent
a lot of money on film!
After leaving
my first ship, I reported aboard a much
larger Aegis cruiser just a couple of piers away. I continued to develop
my skills, taking my FA with me everywhere I went. In January
of 2000, I began a 6-month deployment to the Persian Gulf.
On our way, we visited Thailand, Korea, Hong Kong, and Bahrain.
However, in the rush to move out of my studio before I deployed,
I had forgotten to take my FA with me! So, again, I tried to
capture everything with my now 3-years old Ricoh. I returned
from deployment with mostly small, blurred images. I should’ve
just bought a disposable film camera!
In April 2000, a week
after flying home from Bahrain, I met my wife-to-be in San Diego.
I then reported aboard my next ship, an aircraft carrier in
North Island. We made a port-visit to San Francisco and I purchased
a Nikon Coolpix 990. We then made a brief port
visit to Mazatlan and upon returning, I went on my second deployment
to the Persian Gulf, this time visiting Australia, Sinapore,
Hong Kong, and Dubai along the way. On our way back, we steamed
straight to Hawaii. My wife flew to meet me there and we spent
a couple of days together photographing the island with our
CP990.
While much better
than my old Ricoh, the shortcomings of my CP990 had surfaced
during deployment. After using a film SLR, the CP990 just wasn’t
responsive enough. In addition to its frustratingly noticeable shutter lag, I
couldn’t stand the toy-like appearance of its swivel
lens design, although looking back, it was revolutionary. Nevertheless, it drew too much attention because it looked different. I eventually stopped using my CP990 altogether and
went back to using my FA.
In 2002, I moved to Monterey, CA to attend
the Naval Postgraduate School. By this point, my experience with digital photography had been largely negative. Finally, in April 2002, Nikon
announced that a new D-SLR was on the way—the Nikon D100. After
reading reviews and comparisons with the Fuji S2 and Canon D60,
I finally purchased my D100 a couple of months after its release.
Although it fell slightly short of what I had been looking for
in terms of flash sync and frame buffer, and at $2000, it was
far from cheap, it had the best responsiveness and flexibility
of any other camera I reviewed. With this digital camera, I
took more photographs in the first half year of using it than
I had in the entire 7 years previous. Finally, I had a camera
that handled even better than my FA with the added flexibility
of digital capture! 5 years, 50,000 frames and two children later, I'm still shooting with my D100.
One thing I began to realize in the last 5 years of shooting with the D100, is that the best camera is the one that's with you and that despite their advantages, D-SLRs cannot fit in your pocket. After successfully completing my first Department Head tour as a Chief Engineer aboard an Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigate where I had little time for photography, I took leave in San Diego. Throughout the 5 years with the D100, I had always felt a vague need to purchase a small film backup. I purchased both a Canonet GIII and an Olympus Epic Stylus. Unfortunately, the Canonet was not quite pocketable and the Stylus, although not originally a problem for me, required, well... film. I saw that Ricoh had released a digital camera like no other. They had the guts to create the GR-D, a no-nonsense camera with a small magnesium body, a fast, fixed focal length lens (28mm f/2.4), full manual control, high ISO capability and RAW capture at a time when everyone else is making plastic toys with long zoom lenses and more features and automatic modes than anyone would know what to do with. Despite the fatal flaw of its small sensor, which effectively negates half the reason for having a fast lens--the ability to control depth-of-field (DOF)--and which also affects the usability of its high ISO capabilities, this little gem has truly rekindled the passion I originally had for photography. Along with it, I purchased a Gitzo 1158T Carbon Fiber Traveller Series tripod, and with that combination, I've been able to capture what I couldn't have with my D100.
My current goal in photography is to expand the meaning of photo-realism to that which humans perceive, not only what a camera sees. I like to use both traditional and non-traditional methods to this effect, including exposure blending, white balance shifts, vignetting, dodging and burning, etc. I have mainly focused my efforts in landscapes and surfing photography but I am hoping that with my Ricoh GR-D I can find inspiration in a broader range of subjects, mainly street photography.
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