 So today I'm out kind of scouting a Location An area I like to go to in the autumn It's a nice fall color. That's me five years ago It's hard to believe it's been five years since I started this writing its photography YouTube channel This was the first video just after leaving a 25-year career in photojournalism To pursue photography as an art form So today, I thought we'd look at some of the highlights of this journey Journey I've been on for five years This first video was about affinity photo is My Photoshop replacement Now I'm not gonna say it's better than Photoshop Or has every feature Photoshop has what I'm finding is for editing photos It has everything that I was using in Photoshop. It just does it in a different way Through the years, I've made quite a few videos showing how I use affinity photo These videos weren't meant to be tutorials just videos showing how I use the software to edit my images In hopes it would help other photographers decide if this software would suit their needs. I covered topics like how I use overlays how I sharpen my photos Coverated images to black and white How I added borders I Even showed how to add the Orton effect to your images I saw someone create this effect in Photoshop and figured affinity photo users might want to be able to do the same thing It's something I've never actually implemented into my photography. It just it just didn't fit what I'm doing But I figured I'd go ahead and pass along the information anyway And yes, after five years, I'm still using affinity photo So I have a confession to make I shoot JPEG That being said I shoot raw as well Good grief. I can do both Early on I was all digital Most of the color was some black and white starting to creep in The subject matter was mostly nature. I did some macro with extension tubes and hummingbirds utilizing my garden and Frogs and turtles out of the local pond They were looking for hummingbirds This right in the edge of law Subject that's cooperating, but I'm finally getting the frog shot. I want it. It's not like it's great art But it is good fun Check on this head get off here. So sorry. I didn't start shooting video till now the light was changing so fast and I Really couldn't find a composition last night or spot to shoot from so I just decided to come out and Wing it as you can see there's kind of a fog Missed on the lake and for about five minutes there was some light I'm trying to use this As you can see it. I'm trying to use this stick In the water here is kind of some foreground interest There's not a lot on this shoreline that's in the water that kind of helps Anchor that foreground a little bit But I've done some shots with just the reflections in the in the Mist With a little bit longer lens. So we're kind of mixed up this morning We've we've pulled every trick out of the bag week. I could think of to make this work I'll have something to show you I'm just not sure it's going to be something I'm really that proud of But that's that's part of the deal, you know gotta find myself in this big meadow Having a hard time figuring out where to point my camera I kind of like this line of Wine maple with the trees popping out Cross on the backside of this meadow Now I've shot it with a single frame And I've also tried a Little bit of a panorama But just keeping it horizontal and just shooting a couple frames that way Going from that from left to right And I'll probably decide I'm gonna get back to the office if Which one I'm going to use This could be another one of those cases where I'm just really attracted to the color and uh Not the composition, but we'll see Trying to make compositions out here. It's a bit of a challenge, but It's pretty cool Hopefully the wind has died down enough for you to hear me, but It did seem to die down quite a bit. So I'm gonna get a little bit of reflection in this uh This little tide pool here I really like how the rock sits Like it's almost like in an island I love the shape of this uh this tide pool And how the clouds are kind of playing This this could be my favorite shot of the day. So I'm still chasing autumn But the photo I'm making here Probably could be made anytime of the year. I noticed this stand of trees Last spring when I was at in the magic wilderness Doing some wild rhododendron photography And I'll I'll leave a link to that if you want to catch that one And I noticed this stand of moss covered trees And I at the time I didn't have really time to photograph it So today I'm kind of out looking for some autumn photos and I thought I'd go ahead and swing by here and See if I can't Make some images In this stand of trees probably going to be black and white Before I kind of head into the Colorful autumn scene picture taking mode That's what I've got going on here. This is kind of cool wedge Triangle shape pattern Of fern in the foreground With a nice vertical Moss covered tree element in the in the back Kind of makes kind of a That's kind of a cool graphic feel to it. I think it's going to be make a pretty cool black and white image Today we're out on the pacific crust trail And we've got my film camera I have a history on my channel of starting and stopping using film Over the last year My idea was to have a series using film On my channel It's called adventures in film But I haven't been able to keep up with that and I apologize for that I I tend to apologize quite a bit on my on my channel And that was finally the start of my adventures in film video series something that popped up more and more as time went on A new role of film a new adventure I'm looking forward to seeing what this role takes me A new role a new adventure A new role a new adventure Welcome to another adventures in film Today we've got t max 100 It'll for delta 100 It's time for another adventures in film Today we get delta 400 When the role is finished the adventure is over film photography started to be a regular feature on my youtube channel And I got hooked. I loved it I used multiple film formats. I started with an old pentax 645 It made some pretty good images After that camera went down a couple times I decided I needed to upgrade and go with something a little bit newer So I replaced that old camera with the pentax 645 in And that was a much better camera I have wanted this camera since it was announced back in I think 1997. This was my dream camera I was so excited when I got this Yesterday when it came in the mail I was like a little kid I was I've never been that excited about any of my digital cameras to me. They're like hammers. They're just tools But this this kind of takes me back Back when I really was passionate about photography and was excited about taking pictures And maybe that's why I needed this camera I highly recommend the pentax 645 system It's really a great medium format system to work with But a word of caution with the original 645 I had a lot of trouble with the plastic becoming brittle in the battery holder I went through a number of battery holders. So if you're going to Buy the original 645 camera be aware that that could be a potential problem After using medium format for a while I talked myself into going into large format I just wanted that bigger negative Since I was poor the only way I could finance that Large format gear was to sell off my medium format. And so that's what I did I shot four by five many years ago with color film And I thought it'd be kind of interesting to try it now with black and white Keeps me coming back to this piece of public land It's the diversity so much here It's this pretty small area, but you've got wetland marshes oak savanna stands evergreen trees It's it's just a great place to do landscape photography There's so much potential here It's also a great location to break in a new lens And after about a year I decided large format photography really wasn't working for me It didn't really work well with my shooting style So I went back to where I started I went back to 35 millimeter Loading the roll of film into a new camera is like coming home Back to where it all started The beginning of my photographic journey in the spirit of exploration in the spirit of discovery That's where it all started for me And it started with a roll of 35 millimeter film In early 2019 looking back at the images I made over the 2018 year I started to notice a trend all my favorite images were shot in black and white So that's when I went all in on black and white for my art First with digital and gradually adding more and more film Because I really liked the way film rendered black and white I was never a hundred percent film Before time I was a hundred percent black and white That's where my passion was in photography I found my shot. I thought this was a person Standing in the sand. I was way Way over there And I saw this sticking out of the sand I thought With these light with these shattered lines On the front and in front and back of the of the The old tree I thought there's my shot right there He's taking me almost an hour to get here And I'm quite happy with the composition. I just hope it turns out I'm shooting it with a 150 millimeter lens Slightly compressed got some cool lines through it You know with it with that nice anchor point in the center there I'm off to the side That tree might get a couple white angle shots now I think This is what I came for. I'm pretty happy But why black and white? Why was I so drawn to doing my photography in black and white? After a lot of psychoanalyzing myself I came to the conclusion that after doing thousands of documentary photography assignments through the years In color I had a hard time seeing the art in color Black and white just felt more like art to me. Black and white photography was my passion And to this day that still hasn't changed What has changed though is I can finally see the art in color photography It took a while, but I was able to bring color back And feel like I was making art when I was using color for my photography I love the layers And the texture But I'm not sure Not sure if this is enough to just make me stop him You know when you start commit to a shot it takes a while so Even in digital, but I I might make a few frames here this A little bit a little bit more into the sun than I'd like but I kind of like the layered effect we got some A light section right through the middle This is purely just light and shadow Super super minimalist And there might be something up here too This might be where we start making our first shots The trick is when you're shooting dunes is to be aware of your footprints I want to shoot from a further away and they work my way closer And as the closer I get there might be new shots that they show themselves But if I start close and move my way back then of course I'm shooting over my tracks And I'd rather not do that so I'm starting at the bottom of these dunes and I'm going to kind of work my way up And uh See what we can find But that's the first shot There's a lot of real subtle stuff out here. It which is kind of my my style photography If you get my photography Often you get the subtle you you can I'm often surprised when someone gets what I'm trying to do with the photograph Because it it can be on the vague side. Sometimes it can be a bit subtle But there are some people once in a while that Know exactly what I was trying to do whether it's successful or not And uh Those are the people that probably subscribed to my channel So you can tell there's not a whole lot of them All right, let's uh, let's move up I still think I'm gonna I can work in this area here So I'm gonna do some more shooting here, but I need to recompose Black and white photography was my passion and to this day that still hasn't changed What has changed though is I can finally see the art in color photography It took a while, but I was able to bring color back And I feel like I was making art when I chose to use color to make my images A large part of what I do is still grounded in black and white But now I mix in color When the opportunity arises Over the last five years I've learned a lot about myself as a photographer and an artist I think I've found my voice I think I finally have a good idea on what I'm trying to articulate with my images I may not always be successful at that But at least now I have a good idea where I want to go As far as this channel goes it's been clear to me for a while that these videos will never be anything more Than a way to share my photos, but that's why I started this channel five years ago And I've grown to accept that that's all it's meant to be My trailer says it best come along as I try to become the best black and white photographer I can be In hopes to inspire and educate This is my journey. This is right in the edge but today We found a shot. We found something