Arch (?) Photography

[jadecavy]

For about ten years I've been extremely interested in photography. It's always been more than a hobby for me, but recently, it has become an obsession. Just in the last two months I've attended seven different fairs and art shows in my area (between Toronto and Ottawa), selling over $2400 Canadian in photography, making around $1400 in profit.

It all started when my mother began letting me use her ancient 35mm Minolta SLR (Minolta's SLR section of the company has been bought out by Sony since). Back then film was expensive, unlike digital photography, and you couldn't really play around with the settings much, as a lot of the film you worked with had specific settings you needed to stay within to get the best quality photos.

Now don't get me wrong - there were benefits. For example, maybe it was just me, but I found that you'd learn to compose and execute better shots more efficiently and more quickly on film, as you had a limited amount to work with, and film was expensive. Today people seem to just snap away on their cameras without really seeing what they're shooting...

Anyways... As I grew up I began to get better and better, relatives would frame my photography and put it on their walls, I would sell at garage sales, ect. In high school I took several photography courses (though I must say, the teachers had no idea what they were doing, they were visual art teachers). At this point people were mostly using DSLRs, but throughout the courses I stuck with the old Minolta. I felt that I could do much better with it, and was somewhat afraid to try with newer cameras, as I didn't want to diminish the reputation I'd built up in school and in my family.

I blazed through all three courses with two 99s and a 98. In my last year of high school I began to display my photography at shows and fairs, and thanks to the extremely low prices I sold them at, compared to other vendors, and the quality of my work, I sold a lot of my photography, enough in fact to avoid having to get a part time job. I acquired a couple small scholarships for my photography, which still stand, as I haven't yet attended college or university for it.

I kinda phased out of photography for a few years as my life got more and more busy as a flatwater and whitewater canoeing and kayaking instructor (Which is my other huge interest). Just this last christmas, however, my parents purchased me a Sony A330 DSLR (Not the top of the line, I know, but it is a decent enough camera, plus it fits all the old Minolta lenses) and I began to get back into it. After two months I began attending shows again, selling my photography for profit, under a few titles: "Arc en Ciel Photography", "Emerald Photography" (Terrible name, I know, can you guess what game I was playing when I came up with that? ;P) and finally, "Arch Photography".

I have now reverted to a summer instructor and am attending school for photography. something I should have done years ago. At the moment, I am taking a program at a local high school (all the rest are high-school students) where we spend the entire semester just doing photography. I feel old, sometimes, but the students are all very mature, and most of them are decent photographers. The course is two years and I'm taking it to get more familiar with digital photography. Afterwards, I plan on attending a college or university in Canada for it (haven't decided which), and after open up my own studio.


Okay. That's my history. If you read that, props to you, because if I encountered a wall of text that big I wouldn't read it. :P Here I'll post some of my photography, but only my medium quality works (I don't want any of my better stuff taken), and mostly natural landscapes (as I haven't got a lot of anything else, due to all the canoe trips I go on).

Alrighty then...

Black and White

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Sunsets (So cliché)

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Flowers

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Other

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(Some of these pictures may have been shot with my Fujifim FinePix S1500, which is smaller and easier to carry around for when I see a shot in everyday life)

Yes, they are all thumbnails, as the images themselves are huge and I don't want to lose any quality by dropping their size.



And finally.... FREE DAAAAWWWW!!


Thank you!​

 

[Guy]

[jq]Today people seem to just snap away on their cameras without really seeing what they're shooting...[/jq]
This couldn't be more true than it is right now. I used to be one of those people to just pop out my camera and take whatever looked good without really looking at it. Without actually utilizing the frame of the image to make it stand out more or make it more unique compared to just another generic photograph.

From what you have here, I can see you've been doing this for years. You can't easily snap pictures like that everyday. Plus, with your history, it sounds like this is something you've really taken high interest in.

My favorites being this, this, and this though. Also, I love the guinea pig photograph; it's adorable. :3 Of the three mentioned, I really like the lighting with the sunset behind the plant. It just makes it all the more appealing. Plus, the focus was done really well.

Good job jadecavy, and hope to see more. It's only so often we get photograph galleries. n_n

 

[jadecavy]

Thank you, I intend to post more. I'm surprised that there's so little photography on here. Anyone with a camera can take good shots with a little practice, but I suppose it doesn't really interest most people...

I'll probably post some others tomorrow.

 

[Silver]

I'm too lazy to really comment to in-depth, but I really like this one. The composition is beautiful, the bokeh in general is amazing and the lens flare really adds a bit more depth to this piece in my opinion. I've never really taken this chance to shoot sunsets, though I feel like I should sometime. Just a question did you add vignetting in post, there looks like there might be a little, but I'm not entirely sure. Anyways, very inspiring works.