I was looking back to my first shutterbuggin days and ran across the black and white photographs that I developed by hand in the Tidewater Community College dark room 16 years ago. After my three hour photography class a few of us would stay til one AM doing portraits in the studio and practicing different techniques under the dim red safe lights. I'm all for progress and technology but there's something very exhilarating about witnessing the transformation of a picture from idea to film to paper reality as it emerges up through the liquid fixer.
I rarely shoot true black and white film for business anymore. I use color and then the computer to touch up, remove color, and save to disk. There is a website www.apug.org Analog Photography Users Group, for anyone out there that would like to order those items considered by some to be prehistoric. Nice to know there are some film, paper, and chemical allies out there to chat with.
"Click...click...got it!" As Jim Rohn says in his book, The Art of Exceptional Living, pictures are one of the three treasures he suggests we leave behind to tell our story years later. Why not share meaningful nuggets now when you can see peoples reactions and share the experience with friends and pass such sentimental assets down through your family. Shot for practice, for homework, and to nourish that unquenchable inner ShutterQueen, these black and whites hold a special residence in this queen's heart.
I decided to post some photos that marked the beginning of my pictographic journey. They deserve more than a notebook existence because without them the ShutterQueen as we know this mogul today would not exist.
It's easy to get wrapped up in career photography and drift away from the enjoyable hobby that initially attracts most photographers. Fortunately, the job we spend 2/3 of our lives engaging in is fun. But sometimes you need to just wander around town with your camera and no agenda and record life as it unfolds.
Photo sharing is so easy and limitless now with the 400 plus social media sites, such as www.flickr.com and www.helloworld.com/shutterqueenink. I encourage all of you photo buffs out there, both amateur and professional, to pay tribute to the day you launched into this visual storytelling world and give your still photos life in the online ever after...
Have you found interesting ways to share those favorite first attempts at photographic mastery? What online sites do you prefer?
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