Photography

Therapeutic Photography

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As I’ve stated previously, it’s
been a shitty year and not a lot to show for it. In fact, I have lost
so much. There are times too, that I have been bored or uninspired with
my hobbies, including photography. Most of the time, however, I just
pick up the camera and go. Go out, anywhere. Shoot anything to make
myself feel better. The camera and the process is therapy to me. It
relieves me of stress and helps me create. Photography helps me to focus
(see what I did there?) on what’s in front of me and allows for a
pleasant distraction. It reduces frustration and anxiety. 

self-portrait 5m after waking

Photo Walks

I am a big fan of photo walks. No agenda, no direction. I just wander with an open eye for something, anything of personal interest and capture it. Stretch, walk, breathe and relax.

Group Therapy

I’ve
also discovered interacting with people to be therapeutic too. It
sounds counter-intuitive, I know, but it works for me. I feed off their
personalities and passions. Even their presence is energizing. Ever sit
in a coffee shop and feel the buzz? Me too.

Getting out and
talking to strangers on the street breaks down my walls and theirs. I’ve
been doing quite a lot of portrait photography with my HOT project. These beautiful faces make me smile. See? Therapy.

Communicating
with like-minded people is a huge positivity boost. Photographers are
isolated and protective by nature (why?) so this could be more stressful
at first…but the payoff is amazing. Who else but we, can understand and
support one another? I am really excited about my new photography group coming soon.

Focus

One
of the best things about photography is again, focusing on details.
Distract yourself by focusing on the boring, mundane, everyday details
that can deliver the best images and make for the best subjects.

Anything and everything all of a sudden becomes interesting. Beauty in the details. Forest through the trees.

I
lean heavily on photography when doubt, depression and frustration kick
in. I give them a kick back when I grab my camera and go.

Drink n Click!

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I have been asked to host and sponsor the local Houston chapter of the Drink and Click™ organization. The premise is simple- We meet at a bar to have a drink, talk about Photography/Social Media, laugh and have fun together. Then we move to another bar, take pictures in between… and repeat until the night is over! 


We welcome any level of photographers with any type of gear. We might be able to teach you something or we might be learning something from you.

Drinking alcohol is not required or endorsed! Even if you only want to drink nonalcoholic drinks, we welcome you to come on our photowalks and have fun with us!

**UPDATE**

Due to remote micro management and licensing issues, I have decided to back away from this. In fact, while this organization has spread globally, it has yet to have a Houston presence. – CD 09/2024.

Google Camera App

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Google updated their stock camera app. Basically they took the best parts of my Nexus 5 camera app and enhanced it. 

Added a smart blur for greater depth of field, horizontal panoramas, 50MB photospheres, manual adjustments (like a DSLR) and more. Neat!

Never Satisfied

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I’m doing it again. As the website’s current byline claims: “Never satisfied”, I am reorganizing and streamlining.

Project 1: Adding Daphne’s images to her web gallery which is tied into this website http://chrisdenbow.website/dvd

Project 2: Migrating all of my images off of both Flickr accounts (6 years worth). My Flickr Pro account will expire this month and I am not anxious to renew it after all these years. Lack of innovation and customer support has me looking to my own server. I tried SmugMug but can’t get into it.

Project 3: Uploading a majority of these to a photo gallery attached to my personal photography site

Photographer’s Weekend

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This weekend Daphne and I spent a lot of time together while WonderWife went to a ladies retreat at church camp. First up was the Katy Photographer Meetup where we walked around La Centerra. The challenge was a point & shoot shootout using only PnS cameras and not our big DSLRs.

Daphne snapped away with her Olympus and I borrowed Jenny’s Canon. Afterwards we all met in the library to see everyone else’s perspective. I forgot to bring a card reader and we couldn’t view her images. I’ll post them online soon.