Chris

New Focus

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Over the course of capturing portraits for the past twenty years I have met so many good and beautiful people and have been made all the better for it. Recently I have been giving some thought to looking for new photographic challenges and have decided to hang up portrait photography for a bit. Especially the sexy shoots. There are some of those challenges I would like to eventually tackle but am limited not by my imagination but by a lack of studio space and lighting.

Instead, I’d like to focus on street photography and even outdoor photography.

Street photography can be an excellent combination of people and life in an urban setting. Win/win. Outdoor photography will serve my needs for working with lighting and element challenges.

I am pleased with this decision and I’ll admit I am a bit paralyzed here at first wondering where to start. So I’ll just jump right in and do it starting tomorrow. I’ll take my newly purchased Canon 110 pocket camera with black and white film and see what I can find on the streets!

I’ll be redesigning my photography website soon to match this new focus and will add more thoughts here soon.

**UPDATE**

Photo Denbow has been redesigned again and has a renewed focus on street photography as well as travel. Other personal and photo project work will be here as well.

This is version #73 over the past twenty years.

The Why Of It

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Recently I was asked why portrait photography, or specifically portraits of people in various states of undress. My simple reply is always because I enjoy the challenge of capturing people in different light, angles and unique expressions. The fact that they were in various states of undress was moot. But then I also thought why keep doing it? What else is out there that I can find?

And that was it. I realized that I am again ambitious in my photography.
And curious.
And looking for different.

Different compositions, challenges, locations, adventures, formats and more.

I want to discover something from a new perspective and photograph it. To remember a moment, or document something for all time, or appreciate the subject more. I don’t want posed. I want candid, intentional, deliberate and authentic.

This is the why; a new challenge.

New Focus

by

Over the course of capturing portraits for the past twenty years I have met so many good and beautiful people and have been made all the better for it. Recently I have been giving some thought to looking for new photographic challenges and have decided to hang up portrait photography for a bit. Especially the sexy shoots. There are some of those challenges I would like to eventually tackle but am limited not by my imagination but by a lack of studio space and lighting.

Instead, I’d like to focus on street photography and even outdoor photography.

Street photography can be an excellent combination of people and life in an urban setting. Win/win. Outdoor photography will serve my needs for working with lighting and element challenges.

I am pleased with this decision and I’ll admit I am a bit paralyzed here at first wondering where to start. So I’ll just jump right in and do it starting tomorrow. I’ll take my newly purchased Canon 110 pocket camera with black and white film and see what I can find on the streets!

I’ll be redesigning my photography website soon to match this new focus and will add more thoughts here soon.

Penny

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Say hello to Penny, the Pentax K1000 camera with a 50mm prime lens, a 2x teleconverter and flash. So looking forward to loading her up with some new 35mm film and taking her out on a nice day trip.

Routine Maintenance

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Let’s face it; I will never run a marathon or a triathlon. I will never climb a rock face any higher than 100’ again. I am not an extreme athlete and have no desire to be one. Once my child was born it stopped being about me and the risks I used to take (I still take risks but they’re more calculated now). None of this matters to me now.

I don’t consume energy/sport drinks and waste my days watching the XTREME SPORTZ channel on YouTube all day. I’m just Chris. Currently a mild-mannered, urban city-dweller and sedentary desk worker who is looking to improve his quality of life. Rarely do we see stories about Chris. “Chris is in his late forties, doesn’t wear the latest workout fashion but wears what is comfortable and has no idea what his personal best is.” There are a lot of Chris’s out there. In fact, I see them walking around the neighborhood in cold weather.

This doesn’t scream “active lifestyle.” It doesn’t inspire adventure or extreme risk. But what it should do is encourage me to move. To squeeze into my workout clothes and to get my lazy ass into the wilds, urban or actual. I’m working out a couple of times a week but I am setting no records so we’ll call it bare minimal maintenance. As I age I fall out of shape quickly and bad habits become too comfortable and easy.

So there are days I manage a thirty minute walk to work or a fifteen minute walk to the fast food place during the lunch hour. Sometimes I’ll walk around the indoor track at work. I wonder if I can add another walk before dinner time. I’m sure I could do the very least of this routine maintenance.

Creative Rebellion

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“Most of the world seemed to have moved on from film stocks, and the cameras were no more than vintage keepsakes of photography history. I would get strange looks whenever people figured out I was shooting with a film camera. We were seen as a bunch of misfits — or hipsters, as the wretched label came to be. But, the deeper I got into it, the clearly I saw what shooting film meant for those who did: it’s a form of creative rebellion in a world that puts a premium on perfection.“

No One Else’s Rules Apply

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Every time you come to a fork in the road, don’t think. Automatically take the harder route, and pretty soon you’re off on someplace of your own, and no one else’s rules apply.

Time Well Spent

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It is almost the end of the year and the end of another decade. But for me a new day starts when I wake up, not at midnight. Nothing changes except the time. My memorable time stamps occur during meaningful, personal moments.

January 1 is a work holiday where I get paid to not show up. Cool.

Valentine’s day is a great day for candy and cards but is arbitrary. I prefer to express love for friends and family with time spent, not obligation.

The last Thursday of November is not the time I am most thankful.

I don’t wish for peace on earth and goodwill towards men just within the last week of December.

Forcing these celebrated dates disconnects them from the meaning they are supposed to celebrate. And it’s thoughtless and again an obligation.

I prefer celebrating meaningful time stamps instead of calendar dates.

Rest

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I slept most of the last weekend of 2019. It was cold, wet and dreary with even a tornado warning for the area. But I did have time to reflect on the benefits and variations of rest.
I remembered that rest can mean different things to different situations including permission to be “unproductive” without guilt, a break from responsibility. Or solitude to recharge. Stillness to decompress. A safe space in bed while the grey skies fall or cozied up in the office chair reading.
Getting permission to not be helpful and then connecting with dead poets and authors.

However we find rest it is essential and beneficial once we take advantage of it without thought or guilt.