Five Years

Five years of photography and a global pandemic. And some other stuff.

Five years ago this month, I was set to go on a trip to a student journalist convention in New York City. I was the editor-in-chief of my state college’s newspaper, and set on continuing down that path. Constantly writing, editing, photographing, interviewing, being published, and learning everyday was exciting. (Sometimes painful lessons, but mostly interesting ones.)

I didn’t go to the conference, which coincided with the weekend the COVID-19 pandemic was declared and lock-downs, to varying degrees, began. I likely would have been stuck in a place I’d never been before, quarantined in an overpriced hotel room, with flights landed. Or worse.

I had already purchased a camera for the trip a few weeks before I was set to go, and was still getting the hang of my first professional quality camera. I’d saved money at a food service job for a couple of years and bought a Canon EOS Rebel T7i after a lot of comparison shopping online. It was glued to my hand, in place of my various iPods and iPhones over the years (and one Vivitar video camera that unfortunately ceased working at some point when I was around 10 years old). By the end of March 2020, I switched from shooting in .jpeg to .RAW, so it’s best I didn’t go to New York, if for no other reason than that the photos would’ve been comparatively terrible in quality. Obviously.

Images taken in 2021-2022 on EOS Rebel T7i.

Over time, and several moves in 2022-2023 following a disastrous hurricane experience, the Rebel moved to the back of the shelf. I’ve taken tens of thousands of photos — a low-end estimate — on this DSLR. I learned manual settings on it. I filmed videos. I completed all my assignments for my first (and so far, only) photography class on it, in which I learned a great deal about the history of photography and how to tell a story through a series of photos. (I also learned to make sure I’m not shooting in Tungsten outdoors on a sunny morning, and also how to salvage those images in Lightroom. But most importantly to not do that in the first place.)

I documented hurricane devastation and family birthdays and graduations and hundreds of sunsets. I got into street and documentary photography. I learned that the best camera is the one I have with you, and I took it to heart to varying degrees, but I still like learning about the different technologies and nuances of different systems.

On the left, an image from my first roll of film in 2021. On the right, an image from late 2022.

In 2021, I wanted a new challenge, and took up film photography. After cycling through cheap old SLRs that kept breaking on me and getting the hang of the more complicated but often more rewarding process of properly exposing film, I got my Canonet QL17. Knock on wood, this little fixed lens rangefinder from the 1970s hasn’t broken on me or let me down.

Then, I went on another comparison shopping mission and found a deal on a compact digital camera that has become my everyday standby a little over a year ago, the Sony RX100VII. It’s a versatile, powerful little pocket camera that’s easy to bring anywhere, including concerts.

Concert photos taken on Sony in 2024.

I’ve always had an interest in outer space. Not enough to learn astrophysics (but never say never), but enough to return to the science and beauty of space time and again with a sense of wonder. I read there would be a lunar eclipse in the middle of the night on March 14, so I set up my lightweight tripod, charged the bulky workhorse battery of the T7i, put on the 75-300mm 4.5-5.6 lens, and got to shooting. Considering it was my first lunar eclipse and sans an actual telescope, I am happy with the result, and making some use of myself at 3 A.M.

Sometimes we should dust off our shelves more often and remember what our past selves and tools were capable of, and enjoy the progress we’ve made. And, maybe most importantly, to keep challenging ourselves and learning about whatever piques our interest and following it.

So, in that vein, I’m also going to try to post my writing more consistently instead of letting it sit in a folder on my computer collecting digital dust.