September ~ Change is in the Air
My journey in photography began with 127 film, where my fascination leaned more toward landscapes than portraits. While I took casual snapshots of people, my real passion was always in capturing the natural world. Over time, I transitioned through 126 and 135 films, moving forward whenever my budget allowed. My photographic education came not from formal schooling, but from devouring the pages of photography magazines that inspired and informed me.
In 2014, I purchased my first (and still only) DSLR. It took me about a year to realize that working in manual mode wasn’t all that different from shooting with my old 35mm camera—one that had no automatic features at all. My love for landscapes remained, though I began to deliberately avoid the overly saturated postcard scenes and sought out subtler, more thoughtful compositions.
By 2019, I had moved to my first full-frame camera, the Canon EOS R, and by 2022, the EOS R5 had become my primary tool. With this new creative freedom, I began to expand beyond traditional landscapes and explore photography as an expressive medium. My work started to incorporate multiple exposures, intentional camera movement, macro studies, miniature “small world” perspectives, vignettes, and other creative approaches that allowed me to reimagine how the camera sees.
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How my photos have changed.
#1 Visiting a friends farm with my DSLR (2014)
#2 Visiting a local brew bub/hotel EOS R (2019)
#3 Fairy Fall is a much photographed Fan-Shaped falls in the Columbia Gorge. For this shot I chose to isolate just one aspect of the falls. EOS R5 (2022)
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Creative phase: Vignettes
#4 Fly Me to the Moon
#5 Off to the Movies
#6 A Visit to the Art Gallery
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Different style.
#7 Little World type photography
#8 "Different World" photograph of the inside of a cast iron frying pan and a sky replacement.
#9 "Out of Bounds" style photography
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Latest adventure in the comments.
14 Comments
A couple weeks ago I purchased a Holga f/8 60mm lens new for under $14 (US).
So, yard art meets R5 with a cheap lens and multiple exposures...all in-camera.
#10 This is 8 exposures with a slight lateral camera movement of the art work on the fence and a 9th exposure of the brick sidewalk below.
#11 Double exposure first of the art work on the fence and then ground cover found elsewhere on the property.
#12 Double exposure first of the art work on the fence and the second are of the ferns below.
I think you have provided a statement that creative work can be achieved without the need for expensive cameras and lenses. ICM, of course, is a testament for that.
Nice double exposures - can I assume you used the double-exposure feature on your camera for these?
Thanks for this series Dean.
(MEMBERS - BTW - my notifications on fstoppers no longer seem to be updating - do others have a similar issue?)
We can clearly see growth, especially throughout the first 3 and how you have experimented beyond.
My path was something similar - starting as a teen in a camera club where I shot Ektachrome, and learning from mistakes, harsh critiques, and any photo media I could get my hands on at the time.
I wonder after all of your experimentation and transitions if you feel you have landed on one particular genre or style, or whether a desire to experiment IS your genre?
If you look back on your work over the years, are there images/styles that continue to resonate with you?
There are months where FS's doesn't show notifications for me as well.
I think experimenting is my current style, whether with camera features, editing or a combination of both and driven by "What would happen if...."
I enjoy the adventure of "getting there' as much as taking a photograph. There are some, more than other's, that take me back to when the photo was taken.
What a good read. Thank you for taking the time to post it. I enjoyed the images as well - some I remember and was great to see again. Nice work!
Thank you for the read, Dean.
I love that you show the setups as well. Plenty of wonderful photos but the "out of bounds" boat photo was something new that really caught my eye, I love it.
P.S. Those oversaturated postcardesque scenes of landscape photos also grind my gears, although I have not yet found a way to shoot and edit landscapes to a point where I'm satisfied.
I have an Out of Bounds submission in Critique the Community is you are interested. It is currently rated at 3.4 Stars.
Voted!
Thank you. That makes 11 "Likes", so far.
Following your example I've added a couple myself. Just so that folks can see different ICM styles.
MEMBERS - if you DO enter the competition drop in the e discussion so others can check it out (or perhaps we list on new discussion???). Let's support one another.
Perhaps pinned...or would that get too much after a year?
Voted.
You had me searching for that same picture scratching my head, trying to figure out why I couldn't find it.
It took me a minute to realize it was a different one. Anyway, Voted on both!
Perhaps "if" the group Admin decides to have a Contest reminder post that, posting the photos would be suggested to make things a bit easier. My Bad.
Good idea.... but it doesn't need to be the 'admin'..... Any member can initiate a discussion!
I'll try to remember this when the time comes. You're bad... :-)