Beginnings
I can't remember when I first fell in love with photography. It probably started some time in the late 90s or early 2000s, when I was just in elementary school.
My family wasn't well off, but by luck or coincidence my father worked for an airline and one of my mom's brothers was stationed in Germany with the Marines, and so we were able to spend a few summer vacations in Europe growing up. Each time, someone gave me and the rest of the kids a disposable 35mm camera or two for the trip, and that I suppose was my first serious exposure to the photographic arts.
It wasn't until a few years later however, that I started to actually be semi-serious about the hobby (as serious as a high school student can be).
I don't know why, probably because I was some breed of pre-2010s hipster, but I gravitated towards film, vinyl records, all things analog. I was like a truffle pig at the thrift stores, hunting about for the good shit. I wasn't quite sure what the good shit was (nor am I sure 15 years later), but I had a working typewriter, half a dozen (again, working) Polaroid cameras of different models, an old Kodak Brownie, a variety of film point&shoots, and my prized Canon AE-1 with 35mm lens. I was on the early Lomography train and could never get my Holga shots to come out right.
In a move that I'm not quite sure if I should regret or not, I paid absolutely zero attention in my high school digital photography class. Appealing to the majority of the students' demands, the Mr. Stiles (a kind, chain-smoking man from New York who was a real working artiste) focused much of the lessons on teaching us to use Photoshop and the like.
Being the little shite I was, I felt that I was above learning such things. Real photographers didn't use Photoshop! Never mind that I could barely name any "real" photographers, professional or otherwise. I was a senior at my third high school in four years, suffering from a dysfunctional family and some undiagnosed mental stuff, I was not in the place to focus.
After a few weeks, I was so bored that I asked him for something else to do, expecting him to let me just walk around campus with one of the DSLRs and fuck about.
Nope, he wanted me to clean out the photography room's closet, which as it turned out was supposed to be a darkroom. Over the next month I cleaned that darkroom better than I have ever cleaned any of my personal living spaces. I was focusing for the first time in months. I had some sort of goal, and the aspects of this being some sort of a treasure hunt did not evade me. There were all sorts of goodies to discover. Different kinds of paper, bottles of unknown chemicals, old photos from previous classes... and of course there was a girl. Her name was Cristina and she was a good friend. We held hands and kissed sometimes, but we never really dated seriously. I think we were comfortable just being ourselves with each other. Later, she started dating a girl in her friend group and for some reason that still makes me smile (and laugh) to remember. I think something similar happened to George Costanza? I hope she's doing alright, where she is.
Anyways, I soon figured out that Mr. Stiles was not just a photographer, but also had professional darkroom and printing experience. While the rest of the students were plugging away at the PCs, editing their photographs, Mr. Stiles was teaching Cristina and I how to process and develop B&W film, dry it, and then use the enlarger to make prints. He would give us little assignments to test our understanding of the techniques without us really even noticing. We certainly never saw any paper tests, and were more than a little surprised to find we both got straight As for the class. I suppose we earned it, because our hands were stained and pickley semi-permanently for a long while afterwards!
I must say shooting, processing, developing, and printing my own film really solidified in me the desire to be a "photographer."
That desire has waxed and waned over the years since, but it's never disappeared. I have always been the one in my friend groups to document everything visually. My wife is patient with me, as every time we go out for a walk, I'm stopping every few minutes to shoot something or other.
Two years ago, we went to Hiroshima for a weekend trip, and I made the conscious decision to start getting more serious about the art. I decided that I wanted to be a creator. Since then, I've been taking what pictures I can, with the tools available to me. I had my beloved Canon IXY, my wife's Olympus EPL-7, then in October 2024 I got the Pentax WG-1000. It's a silly, chunky little thing, but it more than makes up for the Ricoh GRIII I had craved when I was younger. But it wasn't capturing the richness that I wanted, the depth. And so, in December 2024 I pulled the trigger and bought a new Pentax KF with a 35mm lens. The KF is my first "serious" camera, and while others might not be so impressed, I have been blown out of the water by its capability and image quality. It's just so fun!
I'm planning for the KF to be my main camera, while the WG-1000 is for EDC on the commute to work. I will do my best to share photos here, and to talk more about my ideas regarding photography and other art.
Here are some pictures from throughout the years, taken on a variety of film and digital cameras. I apologize, I don't remember most of the data/details/settings.
Himeji Castle
Norm the magician
Jumping Cousins
Stairway to Heaven
Queen of the Hill
ghost in the box