| Author | Message | ||
     Tom_cheshire Tinkerer Username: Tom_cheshire Post Number: 304 Registered: 04-2009 Rating: N/A |
My entry into photography was a hand-me-down camera after the family camera had been upgraded. I took photos once or twice with it but hadn't a clue what I was doing. Thankfully, the camera was "box camera simple". When time marched on a bit more to my early teen years, photography took on a new fascination. Mainly because these were the only magazines and books that had nudes in them which could get past our strict family framework.  There were those moments when I actually had to read some of those magazines/books, particularly when someone was hovering near. So, in short order, I became very familiar with all the technicalities of photography. It was about then that used cameras seemed to pass into my hands quite easily and they took on something of a status symbol meaning besides photographic tool. Eventually, I became the "Roger Willoughby" of photography. I could talk the talk but never took any photos. (Roger Willoughby is the fictional fishing pro who wrote fishing guides and was considered an angling expert but he had never gone fishing even once in the movie "Man's Favorite Sport?" 1964). Yes, everyone sought out my advice in photographic matters and even begged me to shoot their events (like weddings) but I was always able to wiggle out of such engagements which, oddly, only added to my mystique and professionalism in everyone's eyes. In time, I actually moved past all that and developed a sense of composition and photographic understanding leaving the "Willoughby" stage to focus on serious photography. And, as an aside, it now seems that so many books on nude photography have so many photos that are technically perfect in terms of lighting, exposure, elaborately staged backgrounds, etc., but are complete failures as photographs. The result looks like a photo of a naked person but not a nude. Sorry, no guns, no motorcycles, no hounds, no wallabies, no sport cars, no military service, and never shot into orbit in my bio. |