I handled my first camera at about six, when my mother handed me her first Polaroid Land Camera and before she or I knew it, I'd shot the entire packet...yet produced zero art. This led directly to my first camera, a Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic, and the sad attempts of a six-year-old attempting abstracts of shadows on the sidewalk in front of the house.
I eventually learned there were two primary types of photographers: camera-centric and darkroom-centric, and I was the former. Even when I owned a darkroom--a Cibachrome setup--the camera was joy and the darkroom necessary work, which is why I learned far more about how different types of film worked in specific circumstances, rather than how to correct my camera mistakes in the darkroom. Even now, I use simple editing software because I prefer to create with the camera and supplement with the software, rather than the other way around.
Thus, after 45+ years with film cameras I made the switch to digital about ten years ago and had to re-learn photography, a process that's ongoing today, though it's not discouraging since it was ongoing when it was all film. I enjoy the immediate nature of digital and the lack of chemicals, though I find it difficult to reconcile that editing is mandatory since digital images--even from a good camera--are so lacking...and most people accept this to get the immediacy.
Some photos in this collection--and I slowly add to them as time permits--are scanned slides (I have thousands of slides yet to be scanned); some of those scans were done when computer memories were much smaller so the scan is small and the image quality shows it. Most herein are digital, starting with my first real digital camera (not counting a duo-lens Kodak that did really nice work), my Canon 50D, then my 5D MkIII, and, just last year (12/19), a Sigma dp0 Quattro, which is just strange enough it's pushing me back into thoughtful photography.
I pretty much have only sold to private individuals, I don't waste the materials in mass printing because I don't care about mass marketing. I work with semi-local labs for most types of prints, and many of the photos I print are very limited (it's unusual for me to print more than 10 of any one shot), and some are intentionally one of a kind and signed that way (usually a limited edition in glass or some other specialty size and print method). Please ask for a quote.
If you don't see something that you figure I had to have taken a photo of because of a photo you do see, ask about that as well.
Thanks,
Clay E. Ewing
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