Thru the Mind's Eye

February Sunrise in Oregon by Lower Table Rock (this was the same day I met my wife)

Me, the Photographer

This blog is dedicated to my amateur dabbling in the art of photography. As a kid I can recall my first cameras, hand me downs from my dad that could easily be classified as relics. The first "real" camera I got was from my uncle as a reward for winning an essay contest and a trip to the nation's capitol. It was a 35mm point and shoot by Fuji Film, a great beginners camera that, still to this day, takes great photos. My last year of high school I took a photography class and learned to use an SLR type camera. My mom was gracious enough to loan me her Nikon FM (yes, another archaic piece, but still very functional). I learned the art of manually selecting aperture settings and shutter speeds, along with various other methods of obtaining a desired subject exposure. I learned how to develop and make prints of my own negatives, as well as the disappointment that comes when you foul up the whole process! My budding career as a photographer was put on hold for a couple years as I pursued college and prepared to serve a mission for my church. Little did I know that this would prove to be the rebirth of my inner artist. With scriptures in one hand and my Canon digital Elph in the other, I set out to preach the Gospel and photograph the land of Australia. I soon reached a photographic plateau, limited by the very small lens afforded a compact point and shoot, and found it necessary to upgrade. I selected another Canon, only this time it was an EOS 350D body, sporting a 27-85 mm image stabilized zoom lens. At 8.0 MP it was cutting edge technology for the time and boy did it take awesome photos! With 67 mm of glass to let in the light, nothing was free from it's all seeing mechanical/electrical eye. And thus began my journey. The photographs posted here are all original work, entirely void of software editing. It is the world and places I've been to as I see it —thru my mind's eye!