Today’s Photowalk was an exercise in pure joy! I haven’t done much focusing on architectural photography, so I did quite a few shots of people. These two old guys were sitting and talking like they’d known each other for years….and I kind of like to think that they have! You can see a few more of my pictures from today at http://www.flickr.com/photos/portraitsbyj/sets/72157606906140134/. I hope everyone’s Walk went well – I can’t wait to see the images we get!

First and foremost, I like taking pictures! Pictures of people, that is! I started my career in photography with my first digital camera about 8 year ago – it was a 1MB point and shoot with no memory to speak of – “take 6 pictures and then download” became my mantra! I continued to upgrade through the following 2 years or so until I started using a Sony Mavica cd200 – 2.1MP….I loved it! After another 3 years people kept saying “You should do this professionally!” whenever they saw the pictures I was taking of my daughters — and I’ll admit, the idea was tempting, but I knew the limitations of my equipment and I also knew that I wasn’t going to be giving people that ’studio’ look that so many seem to want.

After my son was born 2 years ago, though, I started getting a whole new group of people telling me to ‘go pro’ — his therapists and social workers. You see, my son has Down syndrome – and there is a whole community of people who have children w/ special needs who tend to put off going to the studios for pictures….and after our first session, I understand why. The photographer didn’t work with my son to get a ‘good’ look on his face, or a smile – as long as ‘most’ of us were smiling, that seemed to be good enough. I have a 16×20 wall portrait that I’ve never displayed because it makes my son look like the village idiot – and he’s not! I’ve gotten GORGEOUS pictures of him – over and over and over again. That experience was enough to shove me full throttle into the world of professional photography – there is no reason for ANY child to have portraits taken that don’t show who they REALLY are!

So, my Mavica and I had our first session in March of 2007 – outdoors at a park with a family who has 2 little girls – one who has special needs. It was beautiful! I was so happy with how the shots turned out and so was the family! In fact, I also shot a swim meet for some families at a Special Olympics meet, did Senior Pictures for a graduate who has Down syndrome, a family session for a little boy with Cerebral Palsy and his mom and dad, and did a ton of candids for our local Buddy walk this last fall….Things that never would have crossed my plate otherwise!

I retired my Mavica after that first session and now sport a Canon Rebel XT – with an eye towards being able to upgrade this fall to a 40D! I’ve joined the Fresno Photographer’s Network (a local group of professional/amateur photographers) and am a member of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep – an organization that takes portraits of terminal infants and their families. I started branching out into the wedding arena in January and have shot 2nd or 3rd camera on 3 different weddings and just shot my first solo wedding this last weekend — what fun!

I don’t have a studio location (hence no ’studio look’), but prefer to shoot on location – whether that’s your backyard, your living room, a local park, down by the river….I’ll even travel to the coast or up to the mountains! I do have flash umbrellas and a Lightsphere diffuser that I use on my hotshoe flash if necessary.

Thanks for stopping by – feel free to leave comments or an email addy – I’ll happily write you if you have questions or just want to find out a bit more about me!