You don’t make a photograph with just a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.
I retired a few years ago and while I was frantically running around looking for something to take up all the time I suddenly found I had, my niece, Elizabeth, called me from Florida to give me an idea. She invited me to go to Siena, Italy, on a National Geographic photographic workshop with her. Well, I searched the internet, asked friends, hung out at Bel-Air Camera in Westwood, looking for a camera for beginner. Fortunately, Bel Air got me set up with a Canon 20D and a couple of lenses with the red stripe around them; that’s how I described them at that time. Besides falling in love with Siena, I took to capturing people so well and so intense and close-up that I often got yelled at.
Liz and I re-hired our “professors” and set up a trip to Santorini a few months later. That trip solidified my goal of traveling to interesting places and photographing people. They call it “street photography.” I’m now getting used to appearing at odd places with the camera (now the 5DIII) and some lens with the red stripe. I’m falling in love with everyone I meet, with their stories, their passions, their pain, their living conditions, and their hopes for the future.
I am also fortunate beyond belief to be married (41 years) to a man who has always encouraged me and supported me in whatever crazy endeavor I set my mind to. He doesn’t complain about living alone weeks at a time and then living alone again while I spend days at my studio.