I've been shooting photography for several years now. I started at an Olan Mills, where I worked for about a year and a half. Eventually, I grew tired of the cookie-cutter production-line approach to photography and left to further my skills in a professional environment. Fortunately for me, some old family friends had just such an environment. I helped shoot weddings and portrait sessions (usually brides and high school seniors, sometimes individuals, models, and families) for over a year, and it was during this time that I realized that photojournalism, including photojournalistic portraiture and wedding photography, is by far my favorite niche. I decided to create this page to highlight selected works of mine. (Don't be to critical of my older shots, now.)
Special thanks to those who have supported me over the years, especially my parents, Tina, Sheryl and Lee Griffin, and my late teacher, Gerald Griffin Sr.
I don't have much. My camera body is a Minolta X370n manual-focus SLR. Its only fancy mode is aperture-priority. I have two lenses: a Kalimar 50mm and a Kalimar 80-200mm, the latter of which is currently unusable but possible salavagable. I have a flash and autowinder as well.
| This was the photograph I turned in for our first major assignment. The assignment was to select an image we shot and create a perfect print—emphasis on the "perfect." Additionally, we were to display with this print four variations of it—one too dark, one too light, one too contrasty, and one too flat. It was several days before our first critique that my instructor, whom I've taken to calling Joe-sensei, told me that I had an A and that I was the first one done with the assignment. (Both were surprising.) On critique day, my photo fared extremely well. By either luck or intuition, I got a lot of the technical side just right. (See my blog entry.) The funny thing is that I never intended to use the photo for the assignment. I shot that photo while testing out a Nikon 8008s that I'd purchased. To my regret, I had to return the camera. (I've been lusting after that model for years.) But it left its mark. And, no, that's not my motorcycle. It's just some Suzuki I see parked regularly.
Exposure unrecorded. | Camera: Nikon 8008s | Film: Kodak T-Max, ISO 400 |
