Photography

I’m kind of a luddite photographer. I like manual focus. I like manual exposure. I like manual film loading. I like knowing that I’m not in trouble if my battery dies. Needless to say, I have a 30+ year old camera—a Nikon Nikomat FTn. I do however forsee myself needing a newer camera sometime, so my lenses are all capable of working on current Nikon bodies without any modifications being necessary.

My typical hiking kit is a 50mm lens and an 26mm extension tube for macros. Sometimes I hike with a 20mm lens instead. It all depends on if I feel like shooting macros that day as I don’t like carry all kinds of crap around with me when I’m out taking a hike. As a result, I shoot fast film, no tripod, and try to keep as steady as I can be when shooting macros. My lenses are also really slow for their focal lengths (50mm f2 and 20mm f4) so I don’t have to carry much glass either.

The same thing goes for travelling—I don’t even like packing tons of equipment. I usually pack two lenses with me on a trip and only carry one around with me. If I’m travelling to a city, I tend to bring the 20mm lens and some sort of telephoto—usually my 105mm f2.5 portrait lens. When I was in Italy I spent most of my time with the 20mm but it was nice to change things up every once in a while too. After looking “big” for a couple days, it’s good to start seeing smaller details.

In cities, having the old camera and lenses is also very stress-free. They’re not worth stealing and the less theft I have to worry about the better. I have no idea how people can walk around with over $2000 of equipment hanging around their necks.

Macros

I’m always on the lookout for cool patterns in wood or stone. Generally, these are naturally occuring patterns which result from weathering and erosion. I also enjoy wildflowers and my photographs of them serve both as documentary shots so I can look up what kind of flower and art shots that I wouldn’t mind displaying. When you hike with me (and when I’m carrying my extension tube) you should be prepared for me to stop at any moment and crouch really close to something so I can see what it may look like on film.

Most of the macros I take end up working really well as desktop backgrounds. I guess that’s what happens when you’re attracted to patterns. And that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. I’ve been able to find lots of interesting, patterns but sometimes I forget that there needs to be something in the frame to focus on as well.

While I can’t afford the space and bandwidth to offer wallpaper online, if you see anything you like in the flora, wood, or stone sections of my portfolio, feel free to ask me if it’s available as wallpaper and I’ll email it to you if it is.

Portraits

I also enjoy taking pictures of people (though preferably those I know). Unlike the slower lenses I use while hiking, when I’m taking pictures of people, I like to snipe with my 105mm lens. I never use flash because I like the lack of awareness that I can get without it. I’ve also discovered that the field of view on my 20mm lens is great for capturing unawares someone standing right next to me.

I’ve been told that I have a certain visual style when it comes to the casual shots I’ve taken. I think it’s a reference to how I tend to avoid having people looking right at me when I take the picture. It’s the expresions I wait for and the way I like to frame where the subject is looking instead of at my lens.

You can see a bunch of photos I’m pleased with in the portraits section of my portfolio. No, these are not available as wallpaper.