Portfolio

As an amateur in every sense of the word, I don’t really need a portfolio, but I think I can learn a lot by trying to choose the best of the best of my photos. I don’t think much is gained by uber-granular organization, so I’ve created only 3 categories: humans, nature and objects. For now, I’ll limit each category to 30 images, but I think even that is way too many. Once I go through my entire backlog, I’d like to limit each category to only 10 photos. Honestly, it’s a challenge for me to narrow things down that much. Not because I think every one of my photos is amazing, but because I have such an emotional attachment to the moment itself and the effort put into taking the photo. The internet makes it easy to share billions of photos, but that makes it even more important to edit edit edit.

I’d also like to note that my selections for the keepers are based entirely on my personal taste. It’s tempting to select my most viewed, faved, liked, starred, hearted, tweeted, or +1′d photos, but I want the portfolio to reflect myself just as much as each individual photo does. I don’t think it’s there yet, but I’m going to keep working on it. If you want to check it out, just click the portfolio link at the top of the page. Ok, fine, you can also just click here. Or possibly even here. But not here.

Seattle

Sometimes it’s fun to take the scenic route.

The Oncoming Storm

Pareidolia

v2.0

It has been a while, but I’m finally back. How about a photo?

Perhaps you’ve noticed the new look? The photos are bigger, the text is bigger, and the web 2.0 cruft is smaller or hidden or non-existent.

I have fun taking pictures. That’s what this blog is about. I’ll try to make it worth your time.

You’re welcome.

Just a Photo

One of the advantages of getting to Yellowstone National Park early is to beat the crowds.  The other advantage is views like this one:

Yellowstone Sunrise by Bryan Davidson

I came close to deleting this photo several times, but now it’s one of my favorites from the entire trip.  I like it because of the reflection in the pond and because it’s a sunrise photo that doesn’t shout at you.

Nighttime Dancing in Seattle

Just for grins, I brought my manual focus 50mm f/1.7 lens out for a walk in Seattle to get some practice manual focusing on my K-7. Manual focusing on a DSLR is a lot harder than on a film camera with a giant viewfinder and focusing aids (on an unrelated note, spending too much time around photographers puts you at high risk of contracting focusing aids. Beware). You can use live view and zoom in on the focal point, but that’s incredibly klunky.  With practice, I got fairly good at focusing using the viewfinder. The K-7 is already on the small side (however its viewfinder is one of the largest for APS-C cameras) for a DSLR and with the tiny 50mm it was just the right size. Doing without the grinding noise from the autofocus motor was nice too. With no pressure to get results, this was a fun combo.

I wandered around while the light was growing dim and I found some fun stuff going down at Westlake Center.  Some kind of dancing club was occupying the space and they even had live music.  I can’t imagine wanting to dance for fun, but taking pictures of it was fun.

The event attracted participants of all ages. Most of them seemed to switch partners after every song.  As someone with antisocial leanings, I felt like an alien observing and documenting the social behavior of another species.

 The event also attracted a homeless man who seemed a bit inebriated. He had a large bandage on his belly and dog tags around his neck. He fed off of the energy of the event and seemed to be enjoying himself.

A few more photos of the dancing:

After the dancing died down and the sun went down further, I explored a little while longer. Below is a picture of one of the Borders stores right before it closed for good.

Walking around with a camera is one of the best ways to connect with a place and best of all, it’s free. To finish off the set, I processed all the photos with a similar “look” and I’m pretty proud of the results. I’ve been shooting a lot lately, but it’s the uploading and blogging that I need to catch up on. I’m not too upset, though. It’s better than being the other way around.