JUST BEGINNING

 Thought I would go back a few years into my venture to do photography as a business. This young lady (at the time, it was 2000) asked me to do some portraits of her for her husband and we used her home for a backdrop.

Since we had known each other for a couple of years, she was very calm and easy in front of my camera. It made the whole experience enjoyable for both of us.Today I am not sure if I would take the shot here with the railing behind her.

Gear used was an Olympus OM-4T and Tokina 28-70mm f2.6-2.8 ATX Pro lens with Tri-X film. I used a number of Tokina pro series lenses over the time I photographed (35+ years) as a pro and non-pro. I found the Tokina glass to be very good for my purposes although the autofocus was not quite as fast as the Nikkors I used.

 

I would discover as time went on that doing portraiture was not my forte. At the time I was also shooting freelance for a small weekly newspaper. I would soon sign a yearly contract to do assignments from the editor (spot news, photos for writers, sports, etc.). In 2005, things were going so well at the paper that I was offered a full time position as the staff photographer and sports writer. That lasted for three years before the recession started really taking its toll on advertising and I could see the handwriting on the wall that I was expendable. Fortunately, I had other skills from a previous career path and quit the paper before being laid off.