Evolution as a Photographer : Part ONE

I spent a better part of last weekend at PodcampAZ. (The Relevant Media Unconference) The last session I sat in was The Evolution of Travel Photography by Sian Proctor (http://sianproctor.com/) We come a long way in the last 40 years of photography and I started thinking about my own evolution as a photographer.

I grew up in a lower middle class family in NJ. We valued time with each other, family gatherings and sports. I always seem to remember a camera laying around somewhere. The first one I vividly remember was at my grandmother's house. I don't even know what it was. All I remember is that it had the cool flash cubes that you had to place on the camera and would turn after every shot. I remember making the cubes flash but never any of the resulting images.

After that we stepped our game up to the POLAROID. Photos were taken all over - just don't let your subject move. [Sian reminded us of shaking the photo to make it developed (I thought of Outkast) and actually to this day Polaroid insists that shaking the piece of film had nothing to do with how fast the photo developed.] I think we're talking about 1979-1980 roughly. This was huge to our family. "Hey stand there..." FLASH goes off - the noise happens and the photo gets shaken and then it's instantly posted to the refrigerator.

Our family photo album was my grandmother's 'frige! Funny how my first memories of photography bring me back to my Grandmother's refrigerator on Tuttle St. in Green Brook, NJ. Photography always takes me back to a time and place that seems like it was yesterday.

Part TWO: My first camera and High School Photography

Mickey Avalon Shoot Martini Ranch "What Do You Say..."

"What do you say.." when you have to shoot in low light? The Mickey Avalon show Tuesday night was a tricky one for a couple of reasons. The main reason being the deceptive light. Most of the time by the eye the light looked decent but the camera was reading things all over the place. I finally decided to go with 1600 Iso and my 24-70mm f2.8 lens - with manual settings. The exposure varied during the set quite often. The other reason being that I am not used to shooting Hip-Hop shows - all things considered I got a bunch of images I really like and it was a lot of fun.

Getting out of my comfort zone was a great experience. This was a great exercise to challenge myself and get away from what I typically shoot. There is so much more movement in Hip-Hop on stage and there are misc. people who otherwise wouldn't be on stage at a typical show. Mickey Avalon had dancers, a DJ and some guy taking photos from behind him while on stage (covering his flash the whole time with his hand.) This guy was enjoying the show from the stage in a hype man kind of way but I found it odd he was armed with a camera. Composing shots with all the movement and people was tough.

Photos can be seen at: www.grtaylor2photo.com or www.flickr.com/grtaylor

Thanks goes out to Laura and Kristine at Avid Exposure for the access to the show.

Rusted Root : Marquee Theater / Tempe, AZ

This blog has been moved to: www.grtaylor2.com - Come on over and say hello!

Thanks - Greg Taylor

Ear Candy - Music Is The Weapon of the Future

There are really good things happening here in AZ. I wrote earlier about MADCAP Theaters and how they are revitalizing Tempe with the arts. Here is another: Ear Candy.

I had a chance to meet Erin Friday night and we spoke a lot about what they do and how people can get involved. Go to their website for all the details - but I'll paraphrase:

Ear Candy collects and distrubutes musical instruments to schools for in-school education and works with programs such as The Boy's and Girl's clubs on after-school programming.

Music has always been a huge part of my life. I grew up with a father that played guitar and a mother who loved music. I associate various events and memories of my life with certain songs and artists. At a young age I decided to play guitar and had encouragement throughout my life.

Ear Candy also has an emerging artists series which supports up and coming musicians and gives them a place to showcase their skills.

Do you have a guitar(or any instrument) laying around that is not played? This is the way to give it a new home and give the gift of music.

If you see Ear Candy at an event (and you will) I encourage you to stop by say hello and see how you can help. (Link to Electronic Press Release Video) - Enough said...

Moving Real Soon...Combining Forces

What's up folks.  I am in the process of transferring my blog from www.grtaylor2photo.com to BlogSpot. What that really means for everyone - I'm not sure. My hopes are to have a tool that I can easily update more frequently and isn't so labor intensive.

So hang on - I'll let everyone know when we jump from one platform to another. Those of you who access the blog currently from the grtaylor2photo site - stay calm - no need to change anything - you'll be redirected.

Hopefully when I get this all dialed in I can post some details about my plan for the blog and maybe a little about me etc.

Thanks.