I’ve rediscovered a passion of mine long left dormant. It’s photography, and digital photography is what’s inspired me. Sure, we’ve had a digital camera (a Canon Powershot S50) for years now. While I enjoyed its compact size and resolution, its fixed lens was uninspiring and the shutter delay made capturing the moment a frustrating experience.
The big break came when my employer sent me to Australia for two weeks. I couldn’t go without taking pictures, nor could I leave the family without a means of taking pictures. We finally agreed to get a Nikon D50 to augment our Canon Powershot. In an ironic twist, the Powershot mysteriously stopped working a few weeks later.
I have fallen in love with the D50. It takes beautiful pictures so quickly that snapping the shutter is like a hit of crack: you just can’t stop! I take my camera with me practically whereever I go, looking for that once-in-a-lifetime shot.
I took two weeks’ worth of beautiful pictures in Austalia, although it resulted in an altercation I still don’t fully understand. I toted it to Holland a month later. Finally I could share the beauty of my travels with the folks at home.
I shot wondrous pictures at the America’s Sail event in Beaufort this spring. I arrived the day before most ship tours but landed quite a few pictures of the host of honor, Beaufort’s own privateer, Horatio Sinbad. Which reminds me that I owe him some pictures . . .
I took my camera to Artsplosure this summer, too, little knowing it would result in controversy. As we were finishing up our tour, I heard a Squirrel Nut Zippers song playing at a nearby stage and snapped some pictures of the Maxwell/Mosher band warming up. In my blog entry I made note of how N & O music critic David Menconi’s recent story about the band’s breakup made them sound like . . . well, dicks. Well, the bandmates surf the net with the best of them and zeroed in on my blog, unloading on me with their side of the story. Either I touched a big nerve or the guys were looking for a place to vent. Or both, who knows? Once the lead had stopped flying I was left a bit bewildered at it all but was happy to provide a forum for their side. My blog still gets a ton of hits for that entry, so much so that I disabled comments. Menconi’s blog entry still links to my site as an example of the bad blood among the former Zippers.
I took my camera to our family beach vacation. In spite of the comical scene of herding the Turner clan around the beach for a few family pictures, I got two job offers from spectators to shoot pictures for them. I took one of them up on their offer the next day. I turned 15 minutes and 100 pictures into a handful of cash and some unforgettable mementos of a family’s beach visit.
Seeing the pictures of the Raleigh Flickr group have inspired me to take my photography much more seriously. As a fine musical instrument inspires a musician to play better music, so does a fine camera inspire a photographic artist.