Spring the time of renewal and rebirth

So Spring is finally here in good ole central Pa! I am excited as it is bringing a whole lot of new life to the area, as well as a lot of changes from the rather harsh winter we had this year.

A lot of things are changing here at my office as well. For a while I backed off from my photography. I had grown discouraged and honestly, a little depressed this year. My wife and I had moved to a new area, and honestly I have been having a rough time of it since we got here about three years ago. This year was particularly bad when I lost my job two months ago. It was a huge blow to my self confidence, and had strained me both professionally and personally. After mulling around for a while and doing a little soul searching, I grabbed my camera, dusted it off, and said let's give this a shot again. I haven't felt this good about my photography since we have moved here! I felt like I had regained something I lost and could get back again.

In my college years, you couldn't find me anywhere without a camera on me. I always had it either on a strap around my neck or in my backpack. Honestly I hit a roadblock... sort of like a writers block, with my photography. I wasn't happy with anything I was taking photos of. I wasn't taking pictures I felt like were up to what I felt was my level. Honestly I got depressed about it, and I felt defeated. I put my camera down, and just let it sit. I felt blind, like I couldn't see anything, nothing was inspiring to me anymore. So there my camera sat, collecting dust. The only time I got it out was if someone specifically asked me to take photos of something. When that happened I pretty much just got annoyed, but did it anyway.

It wasn't until about my birthday, my wife got me a photography book that I had eyed up at Barnes and Noble, that I felt a little spark inside again. I read the book with eager fascination, but still didn't pick up my camera. About a week ago, she showed me photograph's from someone else, and remarked "You use to take photos better than that. I don't think you can do it anymore though." I felt a little hurt by this, but it rung true in my mind. That weekend she told me to go with her for a walk with our dog Harley. She told me to bring my camera, so I did. We got to the Rainbow Falls, out at Trough Creek State Park, and she started saying about how neat it would be to take some photos of the water fall. I felt that spark again, and I pulled out my camera and looked through it, and when I pushed that shutter release, it was like someone through gasoline on a fire! I just went crazy, I started taking photos of everything I could find there. She even helped me climb down into the little crevasse at the upper part of the falls (I have a little bit of a fear of heights, which is why I needed help) and I got right into the water to take shots up there. I basically kept shooting until my memory card was maxed out, and me being a little annoyed before we started our journey, didn't pack any extras because I didn't expect I would want to take many photograph's.

I got home, and whipped open my laptop and fired up Photoshop for the first time in forever, and just went to town. I stayed up till well past midnight working on them and getting them to look absolutely perfect. I only slept for four hours and woke up and got them on the web on my Facebook page because I was so excited. That little spark had turned into a roaring fire!

I had heard of this site through someone else, and I was a little skeptical at first, but immediately when I read about it signed up for an account, and here I am today, a mere four days later, shooting photos again, and blogging about it. I already sold a print from that shoot at the Rainbow Falls, and had several hundred hits on the images on here. My confidence is soaring to levels I haven't felt since college, and I wake up in the morning wondering what I want to take photos of next!

Some people get their fix from drugs, alcohol, I get my fix from photograph's. I burns in my veins again, and I am a photography addict! I hope to share more new photograph's on here soon and I hope you all enjoy my work. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I always am striving to better myself. I am not the worlds best photographer, but that doesn't mean I can't strive to be! I decided that any profits I make off of this site, I want to reinvest in buying some new equipment, since a lot of mine is getting rather dated. My camera body is in good shape, but some of my lenses have seen better days, and my tripod is always being torn apart and put back together just to keep it standing. I just wanted to add that in here because I want all of you to know who buy prints off of me that you are directly feeding my addiction for photography, and the direct result will be more photograph's on here for you to buy!

Thank you all for the support, I will post again soon! In the meantime, have a fantastic day, and get out there and make some art!