Observe, click, capture
As a teenager, I bought my first “serious” camera (a Konica range finder) so that I could take photos for the high school annual. A dear friend wrote in that very book, “You and your damn camera.” Ever since then a camera has always been kept near to hand.
Several decades later the Konica became a Canon, became a Pentax, and then a Nikon. Film gave way to digital photography, and post-production editing became the norm. My efforts to keep up are dogged and currently, digital editing has inspired me to learn even more.
I have admired the work of intimate portrait image-makers like Yousuf Karsh and Annie Leibovitz and street photographers like Vivian Maier and Henri Cartier-Bresson, the latter capturing unawares the people they observed in everyday life.
My goal as a photographer is to find that middle ground between candid and posed portraits.
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My best captures come from people who know they are being photographed and yet carry on with whatever activity they are immersed in. As if the subject and photographer are creating together in sync. The subject’s artistry is captured in a vision of my artistry.
As an avid participant in the Burning Man community, I have made it a personal goal to master night photography. From the dazzling flames of El Pulpa Mechanica in the desert to the ethereal lights of brightly lit costumes at Otherworld, the play of light in the darkness captures my imagination.
My photos express the joy emanating from people at creative play. My gift is to keep the magic, to show the beauty they are unaware of. Then, by sharing my work, I hope to reignite that excitement into the future.
Welcome to my World Enlarged.
Bill “Bowtie”