DEBUT

Very exciting news, my work is being shown in my first group photography show. The show, called PHOTOGRAPHY NOW, opens Oct. 19 at the Julia Dean Photo Gallery in Venice. It's been exacty two years since I started shooting with a SLR after many years of going the tiny camera, point and shoot route. I was always into taking pictures, but it wasn't until I took photography during my junior year of high school that Iearned how to use a SLR and discovered my eye for composition and real love for photography. My camera back then was a hand me down Canon AE-1 Program (all manual focus) with a kit 50mm lens. I retired the Canon in my early 20's opting for the ease of carring a much smaller point and shoot camera. But I always missed the creative control that an SLR affords. I finally got back into SLR shooting 2 years ago when the Nikon D50 came out. Finally here was a digital SLR that wasn't crazy money to buy and that had a decent amount of pixels and photo quality. I had to go back to school to relearn how to use an SLR (you know to understand f-stops and shutter speed and metering). I took a basic intro to photography class at Valley College taught by Nancy Kaye . On the first day of class, Nancy told us that within a couple weeks we would never want to use the auto or program mode on the camera and instead would be doing everything manually. We all basically looked at each other and expressed a doubting, collective, "Yeah, right!" But Nancy was right, and I haven't looked back since. I never realized how much artistic potential buying that Nikon D50 SLR would unlock. My photography has grown 1000% since that first day of class. I'm finally producing the images I want (and without that annoying shutter lag of a point and shoot camera). Nancy still teaches that basic class (plus advanced) at Valley College through their extension program and I can't recommend her enough. She's a great teacher and all around nice person. So here I am 2 years later about to take part of my first gallery show. Pretty exciting times. There's still so much to learn when it comes to photography and I'm enjoying every aspect of the journey. Here's the postcard for the show: