E A R L Y D I G I T A L W O R K
I became reengaged with photography in March 2001 when I bought my first digital camera. I call this the “Second Act” in my photographic journey (the “First Act” being my high school and college years). At the time, I bought a four megapixel Olympus C3040z and I was amazed. All I ever wanted to do was to make images and easily print enlargements to hang on the wall. And finally, with a digital camera and a photo printer, I was able to do it! I took the camera everywhere and made images of anything I wanted. I didn’t work in projects, nor did I use a tripod… I was just having fun making images of things that interested me. Over the course of twenty plus years, I bought better cameras with more megapixels, many lenses, countless camera bags and backpacks and dumped lots of money into this obsession! But it has been worth every penny!
As I am now (2024) firmly in my “Third Act” of photography - defined by careful, intentional, personally expressive, project-oriented work, I created this page as a way for me to refer back to my earliest digital work and compare it to the work I do today. I’ve kept the images as they were, with only the most minor processing updates… I want to see them now, as I created them then. I want to see what my vision was then, not now.
My First Digital Image
This is it… image number 0001… the very first digital image I ever made. I created this image in March, 2001 and if memory serves me correctly, I created this image while golfing at Upper Perkiomen Golf Course. As I said above, reengaging with my photography passion caused me to take my camera everywhere… and that included the golf course. It’s also appropriate that my first image was of the natural world which is my dominant photographic interest.
Early Architectural Observations
I started college as an Architecture major. I finished with a degree in Quantitative Business Analysis and MBA but never lost my appreciation or interest in architecture. These early images caught my attention one day as I stopped in Baltimore on the drive home from working in Virginia. I spent some time walking around the inner harbor and made a few images that day.
Early Work… Light, Color, Shape… Anything!
It’s clear, that in the beginning, I was attracted to bold colors, abstract shapes, and almost anything I could point the camera at. As my work evolved I focused more and more on landscapes - where I truly love to be. But I have recently come back to making images of anything that catches my interest… its fun. And it led to the creation of My Visual Journal page.
A Few Favorites From Long Ago
These are some of the earliest digital images I created… all three within the first year of my “Second Act” in photography. And I’m not sure why, but they just make me smile when I see them. I remember making each one and the excitement I had when everything was lined up just right and I clicked the shutter.
Early Images Of The Natural World
My real love of photography comes from a love of the outdoors and the natural world. The camera made me see things differently. I paid attention more closely. And you can see in these images the beginnings of some themes that have carried through to today… more than twenty years later.
Beginnings In Black & White
These were experiments in black & white. And while I love seeing and creating black & white images, I have not yet even remotely come close to getting good at it. Maybe that will be the “Fourth Act” of my photographic journey!
