Copyright 2005 Andy Richards
I have been making photographs for over 35 years. An Estate Planning and Business Attorney by profession, photography is my passion. I shoot primarily outdoor and nature subjects. I use Photoshop liberally to enhance my photographic vision. I live in mid-Michigan, but take every chance I can to travel to other places to photograph. My Photographic Images can be seen at LightCentric Photography. Please visit my site and I hope you enjoy the photography.
In 1977, while attending a small, rural college in Vermont, one of my favorite professors was a talented and avid photographer often published in such sought after venues as Vermont Life Magazine. I was living in one of nature’s premiere natural “studios” and my interest in the camera and photography was kindled.
Armed with my dad’s Asahiflex 35 mm camera with 55 and 135 screw-mount lenses, an assortment of filters, a General Electric hand held light meter, and some Kodachrome 25 film (which, for those old enough to remember, was measured, not in ISO, but ASA), I began my photographic journey. Early results were ugly, but this equipment was probably the best tool I could have stumbled on for learning the “mechanics” of photography. This camera was made prior to the Pentax Spotmatic and all its “progeny.” The lens had a ring that you turned wide open so you could see to compose and focus. Then, you turned it back down against the “stop” (I have always thought this is why they are referred to as f- “stops”). If you forgot, you got nice “transparent” slides. When I purchased my first “automatic” camera (the only thing automatic about them was that they stopped down automatically when you tripped the shutter), I appreciated something technology had done for us, that many of us now take for granted.
I also learned that color transparency film is a very “unforgiving” medium. But again, that was a good thing, because it really taught me how critical correct exposure is. There was just enough “forgiveness” in negative film that you could be sloppy with exposure, and possibly never realize it. Not with transparency film. If I were teaching a serious new photographer today, I would want them to start with an all manual camera and transparency film, just so they could see and appreciate this aspect of photography.
At the same time, I began to learn a little something about composition, and perhaps more importantly, the outlook that however “good” the photographic result is, there is always something that can be done to make it “better.” When I finally got a couple slides I was really happy with, I proudly took them in to my “professor-mentor” to share my “success” with him. His comment is something that I have never forgotten and I try to use the same philosophy whenever I ask someone to critically review my work and whenever I review the work of others. He asked me if I wanted him to say nice things, or if I wanted an honest critique? I learned something important about photography (and indeed, life) in that moment. Excellence in any endeavor requires that you have no “pride in authorship.” Everything you do should be subject to constructive critique and you must be willing to have an open mind. This doesn’t mean that you always have to agree with the critique. That’s the beauty of art. We all have different likes and dislikes. But it does mean you must be open and willing to listen, and perhaps more importantly, learn.
In 1980 and 1981, I was a “staff” photographer for my College Newspaper and College Yearbook. The best part of that experience was the time I was able to spend in the darkroom. I learned much about exposure there — both in the camera, and later, in the darkroom. My darkroom experience was limited to B&W. For years afterward, I dreamed of the day I would have my own color darkroom. Little did I know that when that day finally came around, my color darkroom would be digital and carried around in a briefcase!
From 1981 to 1984, I attended Law School in Washington, D.C., and for most of the time, the cameras were sophisticated door stops. I got married soon after graduating from law school, and my wife and I spent the next 10 years or so, trying to get traction in our careers, raising two children, and making “home improvements.” The cameras, unfortunately, mostly collected dust in the basement over those years.
In the early 1990′s, the spirit re-awakened, and it was time for something “new.” I bought my first “auto-everything” SLR, a Nikon N6006, and began anew my self-study in photography. Almost twenty years prior, I had started my journey into “serious” photography. During that time, I picked up a little knowledge here and a little there, and was able create some reasonably nice photographs. While I understood the basic relationship of f-stops and shutter speed and ISO speeds of film, I really didn’t understand how it worked. I wasn’t familiar with things like “exposure latitude.” I truly didn’t understand depth of field, and the concept of hyperfocal distance was a new discovery. Other than the old, hackneyed idea of “keep the sun over your shoulder,” I didn’t really understand the concept of lighting. While most of my exposures were reasonably good, I really didn’t understand why my shot, for example, of a silver barn on a sunny, snowy day in Vermont came out underexposed! There was certainly plenty of sunlight. Using resource materials like the Bryan Peterson’s “Understanding Exposure,” John Shaw’s Books on Landscape and Nature Photography, books by Arthur Morris and Larry West, and materials from the New York Institute of Photography, I began to learn the basic fundamentals of photography in a much more technical way. I also read books by Ansel Adams and began to see some of the nuances of exposure. These resources taught me about the benefit of early and late day light, and about the direction of light and how it affects the textures and colors in a photograph. They taught me the benefit of using flash (who would ever think that one of the most effective uses of flash is in broad daylight, often in bright, sunny conditions?). They taught me techniques to isolate my subject and ways to insure that the important parts of the photograph were properly exposed. Most of the work on this website (for a number of reasons) comes from this “era” of photography. I did have some “successes” in prior years and some of those may appear here in the future as I find the time and inclination to work them into my “digital darkroom” workflow.
At some point, it began to dawn on me that there was another medium out there that deserved my attention. At this point, I still did not feel that I could justify the expense of a “darkroom.” At the same time, the “personal computer revolution” was in full swing and both my wife and I used them daily in our careers. Digital bodies cost several thousand dollars at that time. At first, Kodak was the company marketing and selling them (Using primarily Nikon and Canon body parts and adding the electronic digital components). Those first bodies were mammoth (by today’s standards) and were in the 1-2 megapixel range! Eventually Nikon came out with its own D1 and Canon, its counterpart. I have been “married” to Nikon since the 80′s and have followed their branding more closely. This is not a vote for Nikon or against Canon; just a matter of investment in accessories, and of familiarity. In my view, Nikon and Canon are Ford and Chevy and its hard to go wrong with either one. These cameras were still several thousand dollars. The real digital revolution snuck up on everybody in the form of consumer digital cameras. My wife and I bought our first digital point and shoot, a Canon with less than 2 megapixel capacity.
When I purchased a film-based camera body, I knew that If I took good care of it, it would retain a fairly high resale value. I also knew that a 20-year old body, in good condition, would still be able to use all the new varieties of films and render the same images from those films as the top “flagship” film body from any manufacturer. We were unfortunately soon to learn that, like the personal computer, the same could not be said for digital cameras. What consumer point and shoot cameras did was continually and inexorably upgrade and eventually, made the “pro-style” 35 mm bodies (in film, “SLR” and now in digital “DSLR”) “affordable” for us hobbyists.
Of course, the industry has made huge strides since those early days, with archival inks and papers, and today, I have the capability of printing 13 x 19 prints which rival the quality of any traditional photographic print I ever had. And Photoshop has come from its rudimentary (amazing that I can say that, since even the first version of Photoshop contained so much mind boggling magic that I doubt any one person could ever take full advantage of what is in the program) beginnings to become an incredible and full-featured tool for photographers.
In early 2002, Nikon announced its first “prosumer” DSLR Body, the D100. By December, I had, with some trepidation (I knew that I would be “compromising” my F100 body, because the new D100 body was clearly not an F100 body with digital parts), packaged up my F100 and my Coolpix for trade in on the D100. I have never looked back! Two years later, I upgraded to the Nikon D200 and then in January, 2010, I purchased and currently use the Nikon D700.
I use Photoshop almost exclusively and have read thousands of “how to” pages. And I still have only scratched the surface on what can be done with the program. There are, of course, alternatives to Photoshop. However, I realized early on, that Photoshop is the industry standard, and wanted to be using that program. I currently used Photoshop CS5 as my “workhorse” photo editor and Adobe Lightroom 3.0 as my image file management software. I am slowly working Lightroom’s capability into my post-processing workflow.
I look forward to continuing to learn about digital imagery through study, practice in the field, and work in the digital darkroom.
My photographic inspirations include Bryan Petersen, from whom I have learn so much without ever meeting him, Ray Laskowitz, who has given me sage advice and whom I someday hope to approach his vision, James Moore, a friend and mentor, and Arnold John Kaplan, who at 90 plus, is still going strong, inspiring me to live and photograph!
The LightCentric Galleries include Fine Art, Landscape (including Northern California, Vermont, Maine, Michigan, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and New Mexico), Cityscapes, Wildlife, Flowers, Nautical and Agriculture Galleries. You may purchase images there. I can produce Archival Prints up to 13″ x 19″, and images can also be purchased in electronic format, or such other manner as we may agree.
