 My name is David Patton. When I started photography, I wanted to make art. I wanted to be a landscape photographer But with a family to feed and bills to pay, I decided it would be better to be a working photographer than a starving artist So I took a job as a photojournalist 25 years and thousands of assignments later. It was time to go back to my first love. It was time to follow my passion Come along on my journey to become the best black and white photographer I can be whether it be film or digital I will be sharing what I learned through my successes and my failures and hopes to inspire and educate This is my journey This is Brighton Yatch. I've been working on this covered bridge project for a while. I've had some of these shots some of these shots I've done a long time ago and some of them are newer. I've always had this kind of interest in Covered bridges for some reason they might just be because we have quite a few around where I live So I thought I'd do a zine on one. I may be the only person that's interested in that subject matter It's quite a bit different than the nature stuff. I do in a way. It's still kind of landscape photography, but but with With a structure with a subject With a historic subject matter. So right now I'm focusing on covered bridges for my area And if there's an interest in this in this zine and it's not just for me I may consider Doing the rest of the state. There's still quite a few more spread all over the state that I could make a another volume of this scene or actually Put it all in a book. It's spider on me. I really do enjoy it. So Traveling to places a little further away to make these images would be kind of fun, too So we'll see if if there's interest I'll I'll do some more of these These images I may take these these that are in this zine and and roll them over into a book with the the rest of the Cover bridges in the state. It's what's great about these zines is it lets you try out ideas and and see if there's enough there for If the idea is solid enough for something longer than just the zine Well, you may have noticed That I am shooting both film and digital in this project You know Well, you're you have a keen eye because yes, that's what that's what I'm doing. So lately I've been thinking I'm I Think I've been kind of falling into that trap of letting my gear Or my choice of film or digital Defined me as a photographer And I think that's a big mistake I start thinking about this project and going through my images and I realized that I had a pretty Good assortment of film and digital kind of mixed all together the kind of Reflects how I shoot now my heart would love to shoot everything up with film. I Really love to shoot film, but my head says I want the best possible image quality and I want to use the gear and and The best camera to meet that goal So I don't think I'll ever be able to Just pick one. I know that's kind of a Not in fashion right now There seems to be a lot of people that identify themselves with a certain Type of camera a certain format Whether it's film or digital This I found that bit odd really because It's all photography The reason I shoot film isn't Because I think it's cool or fashionable. I shoot film because I'm doing black-and-white photography And I still feel that I get my best results with film It's subtle But I just really love the tones. It's such a rich has such a rich tone It's really hard to put my finger on it and it could be I just edit my film scans better than I edit my digital files Maybe I just need to work on it more But at this point, I still feel like I get better black-and-white images tonally with film But there are a lot of times we're shooting film just isn't practical Especially since I'm now shooting four by five and there are times where digital is just the way to go It's not that I think the quality of my images when I shoot digital are bad. I just Feel like there's just something a little bit special about the film About the film images. I know it's easy to be wrapped up in the process of photography But I don't want to let what I shoot with defining me as a photographer In the end the only thing I want to define me as a photographer are the images I've made So until next time, thanks for coming along for the ride