Before Blog – Photography

Rather than regale you with random shots of my personal life (which number in the tens of thousands), I’ll try to focus on the more “arty” attempts. If you’d like to see what I do with the “everyday photos”, check out the Scrapbooking post.

My very first camera was a Kodak Instamatic X-15F that my Uncle George got for me when I was 10. I loved that thing and dragged it around with me everywhere, thus beginning my lifelong obsession with photography.

I soon realized that compared to my mother’s Canon (an AL-1 perhaps?), it was a piece of plastic (meant in the derogatory way). After pestering to borrow hers for years, she broke down and got me my own Minolta XG-1 for Christmas when I was 15. I got to test it out for the first time in Hawaii of all places.

What followed was years worth of photos, my favourites being those taken on trips and whatnot, like these.

While taking my Biology degree in university, I quickly came to realize that I also needed some sort of artistic outlet for balance. So, I picked up my camera…

And I enrolled in whatever art courses I could fit into my hectic schedule, eventually working my way up to an Art Minor in Photography.

I loved finally learning the theory behind what it was that I was doing, and was eager to improve my technique.

Especially on trips. 😉

One day. after seeing some double exposed images, I decided I wanted to give it a try. I snapped a roll of nature images, rewound the film, and then shot a bunch of self-portraits on top of them.

I loved the results – especially the unpredictable nature of the process – though my professor suggested I try to find a way to control how things were combined. I came up with the idea to project images on live subjects and then photograph the results.

The lighting was harsh and difficult to work with, so I tried to filter it a bit by adding a relatively transparent screen between the two.

After a little fiddling with lighting and such, my series of double images was born. These resulting images were printed 16″x20″ to make them “life-sized” portraits.

Clara Bow on Julide.

Mona Lisa on Tate.

Nefrititi on Ines.

Sadly, when I finished my degree and no longer had access to a light-tight studio and dark room, that was the end of the double images. Though I tried to recreate them at home, I just couldn’t get them to work quite the same way. Luckily, nowadays one can easily manipulate images on the computer – which is why I love photoshop and online editing so much! 😉

Anyhow. When I started attending craft fairs and hosting craft sales at home, I thought I might try to sell some of my images as art cards. I tended towards using images from the places I had visited – like these from the west coast.

But art cards were a hard sell, and I have a stack of them just collecting dust now. (As I was scanning these cards, I realized that none of these analog images will likely ever be used again. *le sigh* Good thing I have moved on to digital photography. You can see more of my beginning photography on Flickr, if you are so inclined.)

At one point, my Minolta died. I hobbled along taking a few (expensive) snaps with a Polaroid for years, until that camera died as well. There are a few years where I have very few (if any) photos, and I am at a loss when it comes to remember what happened during them.

In my late 20s, I shacked up with my (now) husband. When we were on our way to Mexico for our first joint vacation, we decided to invest in my first digital camera – a Sony of some kind. And my love affair with photography was revived.

Not long after, my grandmother passed away, and she left me some money that I used (in part) towards outfitting myself with a “proper” digital camera (a Canon Rebel XTi). Aside from taking more personal shots, I used that camera mostly for “theatrical” images.

I started volunteering at The Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary way back in the 90s. After a bit of a break to shack up, get married, and start a family (with one of the improvisers, I might add), I started taking photos for them (with my Canon Rebel XTi) during shows.

I have thousands of photos from dozens of shows, some of which have been framed and are now on display in the lobby of the theatre. Eventually, I began taking photos of the larger productions as well – like the kids shows.

As well as mainstage shows, like A Chrismoose Carol.

Most recently, I took some portraits of the senior players to show who was playing each week.

I think they look really cool when grouped together.

(If you’re ever in the Calgary area, you should go and check it out!)

And so. There you have a snapshot (heh) of the long and winding road with my camera – at least the part before I started this blog. You can check out my more recent photographic exploits within. 😉