Tim Dolan (Longwatcher)
Member
Greetings and I look forward to this forum and hope the discussions continue to be friendly and informative as I have seen so far. I have been logged on for a couple of weeks, but finally got around to the introduction page. I consider myself a decent to good photographer, better then most I have seen locally doing similar work, but also not as good as a few I admire.
A little background: For a little over 20 years I was an Imagery Analyst for the USAF, thus I am fairly conversent in image (film and digital) technology. I am currently continueing to support the USAF as a contractor supporting requirements research for the interaction of the sensors with the ground stations and exploitation centers. I do photography on a part-time basis on the weekends and have so far been focused on model portfolios and portrait type photography.
My father was a wedding photographer for many years before I joined the USAF. Before joining the USAF I had been doing photography since early junior high. While on active duty, most of the places I was at strongly discouraged having a camera anywhere near, although I still took pictures on my own on an occasional basis (outside of restricted areas of course). I did get to play with some really cool cameras and sensors, so even the 39MP MF backs don't impress me too much (although I wouldn't mind one). And my one bragging is there was a period where I got to tell them where to point them things, now that was fun.
Since retireing 6 years ago, I have been trying my hand at photography for (a little over 3 1/2 years now as a part-time (weekend) professional) with mixed success. I am having fun at it which is most important, but making money has not been meeting even my low expectations, so I have been looking at some more artistic projects lately to maybe create some art print stuff people will like, because the portrait/portfolio market is way more saturated at this time then even my business model had shown it would be. Luckily I have my retired income as well as my day job, so income is not so important, which based on the reality that I know only a very small percentage of photographers make really good money from their profession is probably a good thing. Anyway I have a really good camera and have been saving up to hopefully get a better one this fall (depends on Canon) and I also have decent studio lights and at this point definately can't blame the equipment for any lack of ability.
I have also lately been taking some classes in the evening at the local community college to improve my skills since basically I felt I had hit a leveling out of the learning curve. The problem is convincing the college that I should only have to use digital. I have partially lost this battle, but I thought the last class I took was very good. The teacher thought she was teaching how to use film and chemical prints, while I considered it a digital appreciation course. But the actual picture taking was what I liked and the challenge of the assignments made me think about my photography in a different way. And this is why I am taking the courses.
My online portfolio can be seen at:
www.onemodelplace.com as photographer (member) #8493
Lastly, one of the rare times I will list some of my equipment:
Canon 1DsMkII
Canon 10D
Canon D60
Canon EOS-3 (35mm film)
Canon XL-2 video camera (with the EF adapter)
Hasselblad 500 EL/M Lunar edition (MF film) (Serial # 0002)
And a lot of mostly "L" glass, Six AB studio lights, and a lot of other stuff.
My current favorite camera is the 1DsMkII with either the 28-70/2.8L or the 85/1.2L lens mounted, although I still think my Hasselblad will take better pictures under the right conditions.
for a full and reasonably current list visit:
http://www.longwatcher.com/photoequipment.htm
One fair warning, if you haven't noticed already I tend to be just a touch long-winded.
A little background: For a little over 20 years I was an Imagery Analyst for the USAF, thus I am fairly conversent in image (film and digital) technology. I am currently continueing to support the USAF as a contractor supporting requirements research for the interaction of the sensors with the ground stations and exploitation centers. I do photography on a part-time basis on the weekends and have so far been focused on model portfolios and portrait type photography.
My father was a wedding photographer for many years before I joined the USAF. Before joining the USAF I had been doing photography since early junior high. While on active duty, most of the places I was at strongly discouraged having a camera anywhere near, although I still took pictures on my own on an occasional basis (outside of restricted areas of course). I did get to play with some really cool cameras and sensors, so even the 39MP MF backs don't impress me too much (although I wouldn't mind one). And my one bragging is there was a period where I got to tell them where to point them things, now that was fun.
Since retireing 6 years ago, I have been trying my hand at photography for (a little over 3 1/2 years now as a part-time (weekend) professional) with mixed success. I am having fun at it which is most important, but making money has not been meeting even my low expectations, so I have been looking at some more artistic projects lately to maybe create some art print stuff people will like, because the portrait/portfolio market is way more saturated at this time then even my business model had shown it would be. Luckily I have my retired income as well as my day job, so income is not so important, which based on the reality that I know only a very small percentage of photographers make really good money from their profession is probably a good thing. Anyway I have a really good camera and have been saving up to hopefully get a better one this fall (depends on Canon) and I also have decent studio lights and at this point definately can't blame the equipment for any lack of ability.
I have also lately been taking some classes in the evening at the local community college to improve my skills since basically I felt I had hit a leveling out of the learning curve. The problem is convincing the college that I should only have to use digital. I have partially lost this battle, but I thought the last class I took was very good. The teacher thought she was teaching how to use film and chemical prints, while I considered it a digital appreciation course. But the actual picture taking was what I liked and the challenge of the assignments made me think about my photography in a different way. And this is why I am taking the courses.
My online portfolio can be seen at:
www.onemodelplace.com as photographer (member) #8493
Lastly, one of the rare times I will list some of my equipment:
Canon 1DsMkII
Canon 10D
Canon D60
Canon EOS-3 (35mm film)
Canon XL-2 video camera (with the EF adapter)
Hasselblad 500 EL/M Lunar edition (MF film) (Serial # 0002)
And a lot of mostly "L" glass, Six AB studio lights, and a lot of other stuff.
My current favorite camera is the 1DsMkII with either the 28-70/2.8L or the 85/1.2L lens mounted, although I still think my Hasselblad will take better pictures under the right conditions.
for a full and reasonably current list visit:
http://www.longwatcher.com/photoequipment.htm
One fair warning, if you haven't noticed already I tend to be just a touch long-winded.
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