Blue Pixel

I got my first 35mm SLR camera when I was fourteen. Forty years later I'm still learning, and that's one of the things I love about photography.
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When I got started in photography, I was lucky enough to find a local photographer willing to take the time to teach me the basics and more. One of the most valuable things I learned from Kent was to try to figure out solutions on my own. He always said, "you just have to outsmart it." That's the best photography lesson I ever got.
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They say that people facing death find religion very quickly. After a couple of system near-deaths in the last few weeks, I've become a believer in system backups.
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I'm just back from teaching a photo class in Los Angeles. Living in Kansas City, where we do have winter (witness the bits of snow still remaining from December 24!), I managed to take an extra day in LA to go out and shoot pictures. The photography was fun, but the best part was doing it with friends.
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Last week I had a chance to use the new Nikon D3S. This camera can shoot at over 100,000 ISO (!!!). Just a few years ago I was saying that all I needed was a camera that gave me good quality 1600 and decent 3200. Now we've gone way beyond that.
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I'll admit I've never been a big fan of New Year's Resolutions. It seems that either you're going to get something done or not, regardless of the time of year. However, it makes a good topic for a blog post :) With that said, here are a few resolutions that would be good for any photographer to make.
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Last week I had an amazing inspirational experience. Disabled Sports USA (DSUSA.org) was running a massive event in Breckenridge, Colorado, the Ski Spectacular. Disabled people from around the world come to learn to ski, improve their skiing abilities and race. I was there to begin work on a project to document the Wounded Warriors program, which helps injured soldiers and sailors get back into outdoor activities. Over my life I've had the opportunity to see some pretty impressive things, but this one was at a whole new level.
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Over the years, Nikon's 200-400mm f/4 zoom has become a huge favorite among wildlife photographers. Its reasonable size, fast aperture and ability to zoom has made it a "must-have" lens for this group. It's never been very popular among sports photographers, though, as it wasn't quite fast enough for night sports. That's changing.
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Photography's all about light, and people often talk about "available light" photography. In photojournalism we often called it "available dark," a joke about how little light there often was. Quite honestly, though, I'm a big fan of available dark photography.
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After shooting the Kansas City Chiefs game against the San Diego Chargers recently, another photographer and I were discussing the differences between luck and skill. Those are two things every good photographer has experience with.
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