Who the hell is this guy?

I'm a father to triplets. Now that you've caught your breath, we can continue. Like many fantasy stories, every main character inevitably stumbles upon a path that was set upon them through mysterious unexplained forces. My discovery into Fine Art Landscape photography lacks that page turner, but likewise I feel it was a path that was left there for me to discover.

My first foray into photography was black and white film. Before anyone thinks I was bush wacking into the wild like Ansel, sadly I only shot random uninspiring and unmentionable things. It was for a high school graphics communications class. It was fun and I learned to load and process film. My second foray was my first purchase of an Olympus 2.1 megapixel digital camera. I did what many people did with early generation semi-affordable digital cameras; I took lots and lots of pictures of friends and social gatherings.

Now the real story begins. I discovered internet forums like everyone else in early 2000's and the one forum that captivated me was www.fredmiranda.com . It was a site with various photography disciplines but the one that captivated me the most was the Landscape section. I have never before seen such wondrous and intriguing locations. The artistry and exploratory nature of the posters were intoxicating. I coveted this type of work and lifestyle. Up until that time, I have and shamefully admit, have never heard of Ansel Adams or Galen Rowell.

Visually stimulated, heart and mind completely consumed, I did what many aspiring photographers do, buy a DSLR and have absolutely no idea how to use it. Armed with internet knowledge and steely cat like reflexes, I sunk money on a refurbished Canon Rebel 300D (with the awesome firmware hack to enable mirror lockup). I took shots, I posted them and I refreshed pages hourly. Ego destroyed, no one liked them. I did what every other aspiring photographer did, buy a new DSLR (better one!). I sunk money on a used Canon 30D. I took shots, I posted them and I refreshed pages hourly. Ego shot again, no one liked them. So I did what every hot shot photography did, buy HDRSoft, because clearly my problem was the lack of dynamic range. Long story short and many different variations on the same themes later, I stopped and rethought my approach into Landscape photography. After much searching on google, I decided I needed to educate myself on camera functionality, Photoshop usage and more importantly exposure to other artists and different mediums.

This website now is the culmination of what I've learned and gone through to reach this plateau; To only find out there's another ledge to climb. So I invite all of you to follow me on my journey.

My Vision, My Photography

As if you haven't read enough? I'm not a photo journalist. My vision for my photography is to capture the singular inspiring moment that made me unzip my bag and take out my camera. From the time I clicked the shutter, till I save the file from Photoshop, the entire process encapsulates my vision and the final product is my photography that I want to share.