Origins: Early Inspirations (2000-2005)
Read MoreHomegrown Lettuce
December 21, 2004 - I used to live in a garage apartment next to a geodesic dome. Probably not as cool as living in the dome itself, but pretty cool nonetheless. Evidentally, the lady who lived in the dome (to whom I paid monthly rent) had some wild lettuce growing in her yard. I should probably look this up and see exactly what it is, but I honestly just don't care. If anybody buys a print of this, I'll be surprised.
Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia, Winter
February 15, 2003 - Here's a snapshot of a spot called TImberwolf Valley back in my native land of West Virginia. At this time, I didn't really have much of a creative vision - I shot a few snaps of this scene, but this is the only one I think bears any artistic merit. Intentional, actual "photography" was not so much a priority at this time, as was "playing around with digital cameras" - I certainly was not calling myself a photographer in 2003 and shots like this exemplify the myriad reasons why.
Even The Ducks Aren't Risking It
December 28, 2002 - I would spend the Christmas of 2002 with my family in West Virginia, and would take a trip out to a local park to snap this image of a partially frozen over lake. This is a snapshot, not a photograph - it simply records the existence of this pond, and little else.
She Ain't Revved Til The Rods Are Thrown
July 27, 2002 - I once bought a 1972 Chevrolet C20 Custom Deluxe with a small block 350. This truck hauled all ass known to man. Fast and Furious had just come out, and the number of "rice burning" Honda Civics across the Charlotte area had simply grown out of control. This truck would smoke most of them. I blew the head gasket on the 485 Loop while driving a friend to the airport. My brother, who got this truck running for me, trailered it home and told me it wasn't worth repairing, so we trailered it back to West Virginia and our dad used it for parts. Canon Powershot S40
Christmas Candles
December 24, 2002 - I shot 78 photos at the Christmas Eve service at my church, and aside from one shot of our drummer setting up his kit, this is the only one that made any sense with regard to lighting or composition. There's still a LOT wrong with this image, composition-wise, but It's pretty enough for me to be proud of. I still had NO idea what I was doing with light - I wouldn't learn about light for years to come. At this point I was still just enamored with the gadgetry of the digital camera as a toy, not as a tool.
Carolina Moonrise
July 22, 2002 - The quality of the images I was getting on the Canon Powershot S40 were just ridiculous compared to the poor low-light performace of the Fujifilm Finepix 40i. After getting ten second exposures like this one, at 50mm, I would finally sell the Fujifilm on Ebay and continue shooting Canon for the next few years.