So day 1 of my photo quest! It was pretty ease to come up with an idea to kick this off. As this is about me taking a photo every day of the year for 2014, I figured I would start off with a self portrait. 2013 was the year of the “selfie” and most are bad and I will leave it at that. The photo shows me sitting at work at the Tiskilwa Fire Station, wearing my Hennepin Fire duty shirt, and sitting in front of my editing “suite” that I have set up to work on photos. Photography and Fire/EMS are my passions and I am lucky to be able to work at a place that allows me to do both at the same time. While waiting for a call, I can edit, sometimes go shooting, (providing I do not leave town), upload and order photos. I do prefer to never get a call, but they do happen, and photography has been a great distraction on those “bad” days.

I took 37 photos to get this one photo. I do NOT like my photo taken, and I have edited it of course. I mean I have spent TONS on being able to edit my own work. With digital you have to edit it yourself, there is no other way. You have to know your camera equipment, and you have to be able to know what all the buttons on your camera do. In your software which is the digital “darkroom” you have to work with RAW files, they contain all the data that the sensor or “film” can capture. RAW files usually allow for the greatest dynamic range, and those files can often be saved if your just a little off in your settings. I credit the years I worked with Steve Stout and learned actual dark room work as well as color printing using Noritsu C-41 or Color Processing machines in my being able to understand dodging and burning, adding or subtracting colors, and most importantly how to not waste film as it was expensive. He stressed about getting it right the first time and would limit how many rolls of film I could take to a wedding. 10 rolls of 36 exposure film, usually 100 iso with 36 exposures, and if loaded properly in my fancy Canon EOS Cameras I could squeeze out a 37th frame. I also carried some Black and White Film and some 400 iso Pro-grade film in order to be prepared for any situation. The reason for the limited number of rolls was it cost quite a bit to process that. I now sometimes go overboard on shooting, simply because I can. This project hopefully will help limit that back to respectable numbers.

So a few rules on this. I am going to do my level best to take some kind of photo every single day for the year 2014, they will be posted here, as well as on my personal Facebook and my Business Facebook. They will most likely include some story and some reason for inspiration. I will try to limit the number of photos taken of my given task to equivalent of a roll or two. If I am booked on photo jobs on any given day, with permission those photos can and may be used in this assignment. Rules may come and go, as this is not going to be some strict thing, and I am open to photo suggestions.

Happy New Year, and I look forward to 1 year of Photography brought to you. Oh and by the way, an FYI as there may be a quiz later, with prizes, Remember the name of the color processing machine I first learned how to run.