Welcome to Life, Photography and Everything

Welcome to Life, Photography and Everything. This blog is an extension of my photography website, http://www.essentiallightphotography.com/ . It's purpose is to be a forum for mental ramblings concerning, well, Life, Photography and Everything - but primarily photography and its relationship to how one can view the world through the medium.

It seems appropriate to begin with a little information about myself. I've had an ongoing interest in the arts for as long as I can remember, with a definite predilection for the visual arts. I dabbled intermittently with watercolors, pen and ink, pencil, airbrush and photography over the years, but it wasn't until the advent of digital image technology that I found my best medium. I played with very early CGI technology in the early 80's, but back then the market opportunities were as scarce as system memory. Happiness finally arrived in the form of Canon's ELF series cameras. Here was, at long last, the future that I was waiting for. Even so, I was patient enough to wait for Canon to produce the first of it's now famous G Line series of cameras, the G2. A whopping - for the time - 4 megapixel resolution with a decent lens set. The long wait was finally over. I bought the camera and never looked back. I started taking pictures immediately, such as this one, taken at sunrise on Pharoah Lake, Adirondacks, during a four day canoe trip.

Photography has since become an increasingly important part of my life. Over the years, I upgraded my equipment to professional grade, all the while keeping in mind that, ideally, the equipment package would be compatible with my backcountry backpacking travels. Professional photo equipment is anything but small and light, but modern technology has made great advances in the size and bulk of the camera bodies. The Canon 5D was the first of the pro-grade digital SLR's to become a practical backpacking camera. The current model version, Canon's 5D Mk II, at 21 megapixel resolution along with a full frame sensor has improved the technology even further and is presently my main camera body. In the pursuit of portability while assembling a very flexible inventory, I have limited myself to three lenses, all part the highly regarded Canon L series. The workhorse is the 24-105mm. This lens is used in about 90% of my work. For longer shots, I have the 100-400mm telephoto zoom. Last is the 180mm macro. These three lenses allow me to shoot almost anything not requiring very specialized glass.

All my early work involved landscapes, such as the Pharoah Lake image. However, as I became increasingly enamored of photography as a medium of expression, I found myself turning my eye towards more and varied subject matter. As can be seen at http://www.essentiallightphotography.com/ , I will shoot anything that suits my interest at the moment. I have become a constant observer of light and form and am drawn to those places where both combine to create a moment of magic, if only one is prepared to see them.

This blog will touch on the many subjects that come into play during the photographic process, such as the nature of observation, what is creativity, is photography art and what is art anyway? We have an interesting road ahead of us. I hope you will join me along the way from time to time.

Jim Sabiston.