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Media - Photography
Email - [email protected]
Website - http://www.sheenairenephoto.com
I learned the basics of photography in 2003/2004, but that wasnt where my love of
photography began - that was just where I started to hone in on the tricks of the trade and
really learn how to make use of a camera. While there were the usual, I took all the family
photo's on a trip to Germany on my mom's Minolta when I was 16, I shot 12 whole rolls of film
on a 10-day trip to England and Ireland in 11th grade sort of stories (those really did
happen), I never really had the slightest clue how to take the image I was seeing in my head
and create it in my camera frame. I was always content to settle for whatever happened to
appear on my negatives when I picked them up from the one-hour down the street. I never
thought that it would be okay to try more than one angle to photograph something I liked - it
always seemed like a waste of film, that was, until I applied for school, journalism major,
mind you, but that quickly changed to journalism with photo major. That was when my little
hobby overtook me and became daily routine.
Since learning photography on a digital body, I have taken a step back and fallen in love
with film. After firing off a handful of rolls of black and white film, theres nobody I trust
to process them, so I do it myself over my kitchen sink. And of course, I'm certainly not
going to trust just anyone to print off my images after that. Instead, my husband and I go
into our darkroom and lose a whole Sunday creating print after print while the poor cats paw
and meow at the door, trying to get let in. I like having full artistic control over my work
all the way from capturing my images to displaying them.
My dad once challenged me to take the Photoshop tricks I had learned in school and try to do
them in-camera, rather than relying on my computer to complete my images. That was the moment
I turned my back on digital and picked up an old Pentax K2 SLR film body and went out to
re-teach myself how to take photos.
Lately, that old K2 is always loaded with Rollei IR and in my hands I hold my favorite camera
of all, my Bronica GS-1 medium format with a nice wide 50mm lens on her. Shes heavy, she's
bulky, and she's absolutely beautiful. Sure I have a couple of digital bodies in my bag and an
arsenal of lenses for those great Alberta wildlife experiences, but I also carry a 120 Holga,
a self-modified 35mm Holga, and most recently a Diana Mini what a brilliant little camera!
When I go out shooting, I am always loaded up with at least 6 cameras and I wouldnt have it
any other way. After so many years, I have learned not to limit myself artistically, and to
always come prepared for absolutely everything I can hope the world will throw my way.
Guaranteed, I' m going to want to capture it a hundred different ways and share it with
everyone I can.
I love photography and I love words - so I put the two together, and this is what I do.
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