About Disoriented

My very first foray into photography was when my parents gave me a Polaroid instant camera for Christmas. I think I was 8 years old. It was so long ago. But I do remember running around taking a picture of everyone and everything. "Being enthusiastic" was an understatement. My next camera was a Nikon EM with the original 50mm and 100mm lens. I've read that the EM was Nikon's compact lightweight SLR mass marketed for the average consumer. It came with a photography volume featuring professionals who used Nikon, and from there on I was hooked. I read everything that I could, and took notes on techniques and what each photographer did on pictures that I thought was amazing. Unfortunately, developing film was expensive especially if my parents thought my pictures were "crap," "garbage," and "waste."

Did I mention it was a working class family? The money was short and the "love" can be brutal sometimes.

Needless to say that ended my nascent interest in photography. I've taken pictures, but nothing with the serious eye that I once had. I didn't even take a photography class in college. My affections for the visual did not re-emerge until I moved to Los Angeles for my Ph.D. program in cultural studies. That's when I read Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Asa Berger, Raymond Williams, Walter Benjamin, and many other theorists about visual culture, representation, and cultural politics, and I rediscovered photography again. It's also where I met a number of artists/friends whose own work (like one really cool performance artist I know) were visually stunning and influenced the way I thought about representations.

I bought a refurbished Sony Cybershot Pro DSC-D770. One clunky machine and an "early" digital camera, that is, these days camera technology changes so rapidly that instead of years it'll be months. Digital certainly makes on-the-spot editing very easy, but I still like the precision of previewing a shot that film demands. It depends on what I'm in the mood for. But I had to relearn basic techniques about composition, exposure, light balance, etc., and I was lucky to save my old Nikon EM from my parents before they junked it. So for about a couple of years, I spent whatever time I could from my research just taking pictures of everything. Since moving to Washington, DC, I've been taking shots wherever I could. There are photographic gems everywhere.

My photographic philosophy is twofold. On the one hand, I'm always thinking about getting the "right angle," that is, I think about the technical aspects of composition, aperture, shutter, exposure, light, shadow and a myriad of variables and factors that goes into getting that one shot. On the other, I enjoy the spontaneity of just walking about and photographing what catches my eye. In the end, it is about taking pictures and seeing what emerges. It is the joy and satisfaction of learning and experimenting with photography, and more importantly, sharing that experience with others.

The "About Photo" was a self-portrait from an infrared camera on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Photography Equipment

Primary Equipment:
Nikon D60
Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Zoom Lens
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG Macro

Secondary:
Canon PowerShot A720 IS, Nikon EM