"FRAMING"

Hey, I was right there, no need to go buy a frame, I just looked around me, and found one, ahh, easy.

LIGHT and DARK, BLACK and WHITE, with a little BROWN thrown in there for good measure, it was all RIGHT THERE, in front of my camera, and me! All I had to do was, you know, PUSH THE BUTTON, ahh, a few times ...

SHOOT, ADJUST, SHOOT, ADJUST, SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT ...

Come on!

Look at this!

WHITE and ahh, BLACK, and BROWN ... How WHITE did I want my white? How BLACK could I go, you know, with all that WHITE, oh, and BROWN, all around?

Yeah ...

I find myself "OVER SHOOTING" at moments like this ... But you know that, if you know me. Like I said, or wrote earlier ...

SHOOT, ADJUST, SHOOT, ADJUST SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT ... OVER and OVER, and OVER AGAIN!

Repeat.

I was only there that ONE TIME, and yeah, that was "a few" (6) years ago, give me a break!

I can DELETE the ones I don't want, you know, with the best of them! All I have to do is, yeah, PUSH ANOTHER BUTTON!

Yeah, OVER and OVER and OVER again!

Turns out I'm pretty good at that, you know, with all that, ahh ...

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

That is what I do.

You should too ...

I learned that a LONG time ago!

Like what? Back in1984?

Yeah, while taking that NYI (New York Institute of Photography) Course through the mail, and volunteering at all those Army Public Affairs Offices, back in the day. The newspapers/magazines only used, like, "a few shots" every time, but yeah, they wanted to have lots of OPTIONS, you know, depending on the lay-out, and how much was going on that week ... Did they need a VERTICAL shot, or HORIZONTAL? Was it needed for the left side page, or the right?

You (they) never know, so yeah, while out there, SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT! Period.

Every editor, like every photographer, "works differently, thinks differently, and "sees" differently ... That is all part of "THE GAME" we play!

Or that I used to play ...

I took over EVERYTHING, you know, once I RETIRED, and just "PLAY" here on this website thingy ... So yeah, but until then, yeah, good luck finding YOUR style ... Try 'em all, and see which one works for you! There is no ONE WAY to become an artist, that I do know for sure!

Remember, I was in a GRADUATE, ahh, ART college, after working for a bunch of Army publications, and yeah, actually learned photography, ahh, "through the mail"!

I was as OUT of place at an "ART COLLEGE" as you could be! Remember, I went to a Vocational School for Landscaping and Greenhouse Management, and then a Marine Infantry School, you know, to learn how to blow things up with an 81mm mortar!

Really.

But years later, there I was, ahh, right there on Michigan Ave, right downtown in Chicago, Illinois!

Yeah, little 'ol me, and my camera(s)! What a trip! But it was close to several museums, so yeah, I sort of, kind of, "learned", ahh, ART!

But yeah, to be honest, it took some "force feeding" to get me to graduate! I tried this, I tried that, you know, to please my instructors ...

Turned out, that all I really needed to do, was go back to, get this, Pulaski/Richland, New York, and do what I ALWAYS did ... Well, with KODAK TRI-X, Black and White 35mm bulk film, that I loaded myself! Roll after roll, after roll ...

LOVED IT!

My last year in the Graduate program, after being told to "re-think" my plans, yeah, I came back, and came away with the images I needed to convince my instructors that I was ready to graduate! I just needed to stop TRYING to fit THEIR vision, and just go with my own!

BAM!

I graduated.

Like right before be moved on from Chicago ... Perfect timing.

Off we went to Fort Knox, Kentucky, where, believe it or not, I used to live as a kid, back when my father was in the Army!

Really.

Couldn't have planned it any better, you know, if I actually planned it out myself! Which is actually what I did, ahh, unintentionally, and, ahh, somehow!

Who knew?

Not me!

Funny how that all worked out ...

Just do it!

"NON-PLANNING 101".

Worked for me!

Story of my life.

Before the start of my last year at college, ahh, back in 1982, there I was up in Alaska, on a motorcycle trip, eating a granola bar and apple sauce (yeah, really!), and thinking to myself, THIS is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life ... TRAVEL, and just "PUSH THAT BUTTON"!

Got back to college, ran into the girlfriend of one of my old room-mates, and yeah, man, she was very happy to see me ... Who knew?

From that day on, until she divorced me twenty-plus years later, for her new Commanding Officer, ahh, and yeah, after another of my motorcycle trips out West, for a motorcycle magazine, yeah, that was that!

We had quite the marriage, until she was "RIF-ed" (or however they spell that! Ahh, "REDUCTION IN FORCES") after the First Gulf War, while in the Reserves ...

She had been in for over ten years, but she was a "Junior Officer", because she had just completed Officer Candidate School a year, or two earlier ... So she was low person on the Totem Pole, as far as rank goes back then ...

We ended up in North Carolina, ahh, somehow. We had stopped there (Boone, NC) years earlier on one of our trips down to Florida to visit my mother, and called our mothers on Mother's Day ... I liked the Blue Ridge Parkway, and I was still driving my classic BMW R80GSPD motorcycle, so yeah, we just, ahh, "drove down the mountain" to Lenoir, North Carolina!

We thought Boone was a little crazy during Football Season, so we headed down the hill ... She came from another SMALL town in New York, just like me ...

And here I am.

She had a hard time finding another job here in Caldwell County, and was not happy. She did find her way back into the Army Reserve after a couple of years, and was called back onto "Active Duty" for awhile, during the "Second Gulf War", and was stationed down in Columbia, SC for a year ... I drove down every weekend, but yeah, it was crazy!

Turned out she "worked very well under her new Commanding Officer", and they moved on around the country until she retired, as a Major, like, ten years later. She did well, for a, you know, Dance, and Art student during college!

Funny how all that worked out!

And me, a Special Ed. teacher?

And a real college, ahh, ART (photography!) INSTRUCTOR!

Even stranger ...

Who knew?

Just get get out there, do what you do, and yeah, take LOTS of pictures!

You never know.

Good luck with that!

Worked for me!

Well, except for that whole marriage thing ...

And my motorcycle trips!

Bummer.

My bad.

Live, love, and learn.

And move on ...