Day 3

f 8, 16th of a second, ISO 1600

I found this beautiful camera behind glass while antiquing in Austin. I instantly stopped what I was doing. It was partial awe, and a moment of silence.

It's an Eastman Kodak Co. Model B folding camera, used during the early 20th century. It's hard to believe how much technology has changed over 100 years.

I attended a presentation from a local photojournalist and he talked about being the first staff "all digital" photographer back in the '90s.

My very first camera used 120 film and had a small watch battery that powered the sensors, but everything else was manual. I memorized fstop and shutter speed combos and knew by heart ISO/f-stop and shutter speed relations. It was the only way to get great --correctly exposed-- photos without knowing what the end result looked like until you were in the darkroom cursing up a storm.

I "graduated" to a Pentax 35 mm SLR. It was beautiful. I loved and babied it. I bought black and white film and knew what silver halides where and why the stop bath must be at room temperature... In all honesty, I miss it.

Back then, I remember making those 32 frames count. I didn't want to waste time in the darkroom with fuzzy or over exposed prints... and I knew I couldn't slide fuzzy portrait eye lashes past my professor. 

It took a year of intense photojournalism training before I became familiar and comfortable with my current digital camera.

Nowadays, I am learning the art of patience, waiting for the right moment and composition to tell the story.

As a photographer for The Ranger, I don't take hundreds of photos per one hour lecture, like I used to. Instead I work the room, move around, scope out great framing, analyze lighting, judge whether or not the speaker uses big gestures, find the right spot and then wait. I prep my focus points and framing, then wait for the moment that tells. Which goes back to my film roots, 32 frames to tell a story... make it count.