 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 brightening edge. Good morning on this cold, dreary day in January Lights terrible She's gonna call it like it is Initially was going to be shooting film today Got my film camera in the car But because the light is so poor and dark I think I'm gonna go ahead and just Walk around with my digital camera See if I can make a few shots Doesn't cost anything to shoot digital This is the kind of lighting where I'm not all that confident. I'm gonna get something So I think I'll just go ahead and See if I can make some images We're just all dapped A little light light snow coming down some flurries and we're walking around Kind of the low-water mark Where a river runs into a reservoir I've got some old stumps here that might be worth photographing. I've got some trees across the way So let's see if we can't make a composition on something out here And if nothing comes of it Well, I'm out enjoying myself and that's it's really what's about anyway Not so we can find now. I wouldn't call These little stumps attractive are beautiful but I do find the lines interesting and The fact that these have been here for Since the dam was built. I don't know many many years Just kind of has a history to it River are really about the texture the lines the it's almost like etching Really attracted to The white branches the light colored branches that are just kind of etched kind of etched into the darkness They're really not a lot of depth in these images. They're more flat but I'm really attracted to The contrast between the light branches and the darkness in the background So hopefully in post-processing I can kind of bring that out a little bit There's really no Dominant subject matter. It's it's more about the patterns the shapes the texture So basically it has the potential being a really boring photograph For some reason it catches my eye He's really picking up so I'm gonna I'm going to hit up the road and see if I Can find something else to photograph Kind of the spot is just not really working for me right now Maybe there'll be some trees up ahead with little dusting of snow on them Something like that might be kind of cool That waterfall was just too messy Not Not worth the effort of getting back in there But that's like the exploration It's kind of what's about you know You don't know until you take a look the composition that's kind of fun Do these trees over here? It might work you tell them right next to the road. I would have just stayed close to the road I would have found the shot. Oh, I had to hike in there. I shot a few focus stacks and then a couple just without Just kind of guessing what I could maximize up the field Pretty close to those trees. I really want to get the texture of the bark and moss So this is one of those Very few times that I might actually have to focus back. Well, we'll see when I get it on the computer It's really hard to tell in the back of the camera If it's sharp enough in the background Sometimes I don't really need the background all that sharp But I think since we have a framing the stream with the trees And probably you don't want the background pretty sharp We'll see when we get on the computer pretty windy down there. So I didn't get a chance to set up the shots Just made a couple compositions down there Again, I don't know if it's anything. It was just kind of fun to make some compositions They're not really what I'd call pretty shots. They're again more interesting a little bit more history These trees were removed when they put a dam in the dams in this area were built for flood control There is a hydroelectric Part to that But I think the the main purpose was for flood control And if you're gonna build them you might as well have the hydroelectric hydroelectric part of it I think I'm gonna hike my way back out of the car And if you've hung with me this long Well, I really appreciate it. So until next time