“I don’t know what makes a great photograph, but I can tell you it isn’t the camera” …by unknown.

I heard this quote in a television interview of a photographer many years ago. I didn’t note who said it but I would like to know and give due credit. This quote has reminded me over and over again to try to take better photos and spend less time worrying about the equipment. As I am more of the technical type than an artist, that quote has driven me perhaps more than anything else to try to learn what is a great photograph and I am still learning. And, even though that quote reminds me to concentrate on the image, I nonetheless love the camera and the camera’s ability to preserve time, events, feelings, and emotions. In that respect, the camera can be magical.

There are a few things I remember that made me want to be a photographer. The first was my older brother developing photographs in a lab he built at home when we were teenagers. The transformation of the exposed film into a developed print was very interesting and impressive to me. Another was an SLR given to me by my uncle which I was fascinated with. At the time I was not well equipped to do much with it. But I found the fine machinery, optics and overall package very enchanting. That camera gave me the desire to take photographs which I have had ever since.

I was an early adopter of digital cameras and have used a wide range from pocket to DSLR cameras. Going digital meant an entire new level of freedom to shoot and experiment. I find it so tempting to just play with the cameras (which I still do). I have to continuously remind myself that a great photograph is less about the camera and more about the subject captured by it.

I have tremendous respect for all the old photos I see today as a window into the past. And, I am conscious of the fact that even bad photos may be valuable or interesting when we look back at them in the future. I often look at the old family photos my family has collected (some going back more than 100 years). I cherish even the less than perfect ones. As a result, I have difficulty deleting images as I can’t help but feel that maybe even the bad ones are worth the digital space they consume.

Today (at least in my world) producing a photographic work includes digital processing to varying degrees to enhance the image first captured by the camera. I often find myself producing extremely large stitched images and compounding those with additional layers of images to create a dynamic range only possible with multiple exposures. I find it interesting to make images that are not possible with a single frame. And, exploring where the combination of camera and software can take us. My hope is that as I continue to learn and explore the world of photography that I will create some images that someone will look back at in 100 years and cherish.