A Little About Me

I was introduced to photography at a very young age. My father would give me a camera, a twin lens reflex Yashica D or a Rolleicord, and turn me loose with a roll of film. Later, when I had finished the roll, he would take me into the dark room and we would process it and see what I had gotten. There were no winners among the images of those days but the experience taught me and in the process I got some good personal time with my father. My father has passed and the cameras are gone but to this day, I can not smell fixer with out thinking of the magic of watching an image appear in the developer bath, of my father and our time in the dark room.

I held tight to film and continued shooting with it well into the digital era. I was lugging around my old Burke and James 4×5 while my wife was beginning her life as a photographer but with a digital camera. The day I switched we were at Shore Acres State park shooting flowers. As I stumbled about she was having the time of her life with the swarms of hummingbirds. The bright red bellows on my view camera meant I was getting buzzed by the little beauties but I was not getting many images. I quickly realized that my refusal to adapt with the technology was preventing me from advancing. I have not taken the big camera out since.

 

Back in those days, the equipment limited me to working with landscapes (for the most part). Once I was unencumbered and found the freedom and flexibility of more modern equipment I found that I really was much more interested in photographing wildlife than landscapes. While I love working great sunsets or waterfalls, it is lying in the mud trying to work with a small shorebird or sitting in a meadow with a Savannah Sparrow that really gets me going. I love it.

I am not a hard core subject specific photographer. Rather, I am one who will take joy in whatever subject I happen upon. I am thrilled to spend a day doing macro flowers. If a bee or butterfly happens along, so much the better. If there are great skies, an evening at the beach can be magical. But it is wildlife that I will choose if there are options.

Today my journey is shared with my wife Susan. (You can find her images at www.susandimockphotography.com.) Together we are journeying through the world photographing the beauty, and occasionally the ugliness, we find. I hope you will enjoy perusing my finds and then spend some time looking over hers.

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