Photography







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I am a photographer. My photographs have appeared in magazines and I have been paid however I do not consider myself a professional photographer. I have not mastered the light, I doubt that I ever will but I aspire to. I do work hard at taking good photographs and many you will see in the pages of adam-trahan.com are of good quality yet many photographs are taken with an iPhone. 
iPhone photography makes anyone a great photographer.

iPhone Pro cameras are point and shoot devices. Everything is figured out for you. A single modern iPhone has more computing power than the computers used by NASA to put astronauts on the moon. They are amazing and one of the best cameras but using one does not improve your skill, if anything, smart phones create dumb people. Smart phone photography is simple. You are not a “photographer” if you use a iPhone any more than a person that drives a car is an F-1 racer!

Using a pro level SLR or DSLR on Auto mode does not make a professional photographer.

I own more equipment than more than a few professional photographers. This does not make me a professional photographer. I am learning on my own, figuring it out by doing. This isn’t hang gliding, I don’t need to take lessons because I will die trying to teach myself photography. Knowing my equipment, understanding light and how to configure my equipment to capture it makes me a photographer. 

I’m well on my way but I’m still learning.

Photographers are nerdy types and I’m definitely becoming one. I’ve taken photography classes in high school that helped me with the fundamentals. I study it on my own time and have a small library of books on the subject by Ansel Adams and other professional nature photographers.

When I was making bamboo fly rods and administered a forum based web site that collected many of these skilled craftsman from around the world, I would have spirited conversations with these makers about wether making a fine rod was “art or a craft.” I called it art (at the time) and eventually was pulled into the craft camp. 

Photography is like that.

Having mastery of a camera, lens and processing images is a craft. You are creating a photograph, composing a scene, capturing it with a camera. Knowledge of how to capture light and mastery over each aspect of the system is what separates a smart phone user from a professional photographer.

For those of you that are photographers, you will understand why I write these words.

I have the greatest respect for what you do.

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I started out using 35mm film and 8mm movie cameras in the 70’s. I switched to VHS cameras when they became affordable and made the move to digital cameras in the 2000’s when the quality became affordable. When I began photographing, I was learning how to create good pictures and when I switched to digital cameras, my education and skill slowed to a stop.

In the last year, I decided to “get back into” photography and bought a 35mm SLR and a couple of lenses. My journey has taken me through the basic developmental phenomena that photographers experience. I am exiting GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) now. So happy to recognize that. I have a great kit and am learning each aspect of it.

There is nothing like a quality manual focus lens. The Nikkor (Nikon) AIS F-mount lenses are beautifully made of aluminum and steel along with optical quality glass. The nomenclature is machined and filled with paint. Quality that is quite rare in anything made these days. They are analog, not digital. You focus them with your hand and eye.

Recently I purchased a DSLR. A roll of my favorite film is $40 and it is $20 to have the film processed and scanned. For a roll of 36 images, That’s like $2 each time I release the shutter. A digital camera is economically sound. They are the future however, I’m not ready to let go of the past. I enjoy film and digital photography.
I really like taking pictures.

I chose a quality digital camera that also serve as a movie camera. With my Nikon D780, I can shoot video and stills using my old and new F-mount lenses. I love the look, the feel and the quality of using the 40 year old lenses I have collected. I also learned that there were modern quiver killing lenses that were computer controlled automatic focus!

Amazing glass but seemingly cheap housed in plastic marvels of lens technology.

My 28-300mm VR (Vibration Reduction) lens is a technological masterpiece! Again, the computerized light metering and the quick motorized auto focus replaces the analog or manual thought that goes into my photography. I know what I’m doing with the equipment that I own so I can move and control what I do at my own pace. I can shoot fast or slow depending on what I choose.

Below are the components of my kit. There are links that take you to dedicated pages on this equipment.

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I make the site on my iPad. Most of the time laying on my couch. I dream up an adventure, think about the equipment and technique I will use on the way and then quickly take my pictures and import them into my iPad at home. Typically if I plan a photo assignment, I’m back home that evening and my “page” on it is created, edited and finished on that day! 

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Nikon F3
s/n 1801954 
(P9026297 January or February 1994)

s/n 2394639

Nikon EM
s/n 6904057

Nikon D780
s/n3028302

Manual Focus Lens
Lowepro Compact 35
Lowepro Toploader
Lowepro Nova 4
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