If you’re reading this you have probably linked in from various other sites. Three Five Photography is a site/blog about a budding Photography company, and the many ways I work to break into the elusive world of professional photography. I will be blogging about my triumphs, as well as my failures. In essence I am going to attempt to give my readers something the other “big names” in photography blogging fail at … the words and advice of a budding Professional. I once had a Professor in college who told me the greatest scientific discoveries were usually made by people new to the field because they weren’t set in their ways. The big guys can give all sorts of advice, but no matter how hard they try their advice will always be based on their previous success. Obviously, I can’t fault them for this, I think it is awesome that they have been able to carve out their own niche. BUT, I do think there is something lacking the blogosphere, a hole where the forward moving professional stands. It is to this hole I hope to fill and give advice as I, the budding professional, see it … you know, from down here in the trenches, not from the hilltop where the generals stand.
So with this in mind let me give you a brief introduction of myself. During my youth I was very much art oriented, but somehow along the way I became completely about science. In college I eventually collected two degrees in Psychology and Sociology. Before I began my Doctoral track in Psychology, I decided to take a year off from school. During that year I found a job at a small up and coming toy company. I began as an assistant in Production Management, but quickly I found that I had other latent talents that I could put to use. Long story short, within 2.5 years I had become the Head Art Director for the company. I loved my job, I actually had DREAMS about going to work … yes, dreams, not nightmares. But, alas nothing golden can last and with the current economic crisis my job, my perfect job, became Unemployment. I decided that while I would willingly enter another position elsewhere I wanted to make a living with art. I devour design books, breath typography, and I notice kerning errors in business cards long before I see any of the words written there. However, Photography is my 1st love. The idea of being able to capture something that lasts less than a second in a media that can last hundreds of years. My first realization of the magic of photography came after the death of my Aunt in early 2008. Shortly thereafter I was retouching some photos and found a simple snapshot of my Aunt that I had taken with a mundane Point and Shoot. She was holding my barely 6 month old niece, feeding her. The lighting was HORRIBLE, a lamp on the table behind her was completely blown out. No one in the picture was looking at me, they were completely unaware that I was taking the shot. It was the last picture I took of my aunt. I had captured her very essence there inside a simple digital camera that anyone with opposable thumbs could use. No lighting, no staging, no posing, no nothing. I was there, I shot, and here was a record of something that had substance. The very thought of it all was mind boggling. I knew then that I would try to use my camera to capture this every-time I clicked the shutter. To attempt to capture the very essence of people, places, and things so that those who viewed the image in the future might have a chance of understanding. It might seem like a lofty goal, but going back to my professor, he also said that those scientists had something else that only neophytes have, something he called primal drive. It wasn’t the drive to become better, it was simply the drive to become, and it was hundreds of times more potent than the former. I hope I have that primal drive of which he waxed long about, and I hope that through this site I am able to pass a little of it on to you.
Tags: introduction
