John's Photography

From the age of four or five, I've been an amateur photographer. In the late 70s, my parents gave me a Kodak Instamatic "Magicube" camera that used the now-defunct 126 cartridge film. Though the camera was incredibly basic, with no exposure controls (automatic, manual, or otherwise), used rotating flash cubes, and produced small, square photos, I did a fairly good job with it for a small fry.

Through the years I have gone through a series of poor amateur camera equipment, from several no-brand 35mm non-SLR cameras picked up by listening to timeshare spiels to the Instamatic 110 cartridge camera I had throughout high school to a Pentax "point-and-shoot" 35mm that served my college years. Some took the occasional spectacular photo; most delivered subpar prints leaving me wondering what I was doing wrong.

A few years ago, I got my first digital camera, a Canon DigitalElph S330. I'd tinkered with several digitals prior to owning one and found most of the earliest models rather lacking (and thus preferring to work from film and a flatbed scsanner to get digital images); however, seeing the results a friend got from his new Canon, I took the plunge.

I still worked in the "point-and-shoot" realm, but now I could see the results of each photo as I took them and began to learn from my mistakes. I pushed the boundaries of my little 2 megapixel camera and began to see where my equipment limited me: my S330 made decent 4x6 and even occasional 8x10 prints, but most of the best came only from good light conditions. I wanted increased control over exposure and the ability to add an external flash, things my S330 just didn't provide.

When I traveled to the Bahamas to propose to my now-wife Beth, I treated myself to a Canon Powershot G5, which at the time was their top-of-the-line non-SLR digital, a "prosumer" model that delivered several of the features I'd been lacking: things like a flash hotshoe, substantially improved controls over exposure, better optics, and, of course, the increased resolution of 5 megapixels.

The combination of my G5 for the majority of my photography with my S330 (and later a S500 and its increased resolution) for portable photography served well for several years. Yet things like shutter lag and other limitations still plagued my work.

In the late fall of 2005, United Airlines offered a "store" allowing travelers to redeem frequent flier miles for various merchandise... and atop the "Camera and Optical" section was the Canon Digital Rebel XT for about 120,000 miles. I'd lusted after a digital SLR for some time (though perhaps never really sure why or what my G5 lacked that a SLR would solve beyond the increased range of lenses and eliminated shutter lag)... and I had just about 120k miles in my account (not to mention a good 50k more in upcoming travel). So I spent my miles on the XT--at a rate that at best was worth around $1100, pricey for a camera found via discounters at $900 I suppose... and found my purchase to be an immediate success.

Now I knew what I had never been able to articulate before... what my photography and my technique lacked. Though I am still discovering the nuances of good, professional-level photography, I finally feel I have a camera that allows me to take photos to the best of my abilities.

The photos you see throughout this site are largely mine; those depicting images from prior to 2000 or so are scans from my old film work, whereas the rest stem from the digital photography of my Canon Digital Rebel XT, Powershot G5, and Digital Elphs S330 and S500.