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Friday, October 21, 2011

Write a Photo Journal

Scanning Negatives Project - from Roll 5



By January of 1979 I already had just over a year in the Navy. I had my camera with me and I began reading some books and magazines on the topic of photography. I had finished school at Great Lakes and I was off to Rota, Spain to board the USS Seattle where I would spend the rest of my active duty.

During my travels to Rota, Spain I had taken several pictures of the trip. The photo above is the USS Seattle AOE-3 coming into port. I stood on the pier and watched her come in, I also took several pictures. This ship was pretty big, actually the biggest ship I had seen to date back then. I ended up learning that the AOE’s in the Navy were the second largest ship next to the aircraft carriers.

I remember standing there starring at the ship and wondering how I would ever find my way around it. Knowing I would be boarding her soon I returned to the barracks to finish packing for the next venture.

Now looking at the photo from a photography perspective I see that I did not have the camera level when I took the photo. In those film days I didn’t have the luxury of a balance meter as seen in some of the DSLR cameras of today. Also, the camera was a bit heavier than a DSLR.

Still, I was limited to a 50mm lens on the camera. I took the time to take several pictures and wait to the point where I got a pretty good idea of the size of the ship by taking this shot of the port side.

The picture was also taken with pretty good sunlight. Had the ship had the sun behind it I now know that I would have had to over expose the shot and or take some bracketed pictures in order to select the best image for use.

I was later pleased because of the photos I had taken of the ship pulling into port, one of my photos ended up published in the ships cruise book, which is similar to a school yearbook.

If I would make any recommendations about photography I would say this, keep a journal of your photography. I have been fortunate to be able to share my photos and tell some stories of them as I present them, a journal would have provided me with more to talk about.

Enjoy Life, Take Pictures!


BTW ... On Twitter I am @TMSphotos ... I am always willing to connect with photographers.  You are also welcome to follow my Blog here. I try to share knowledge, information and experience of my photography.

1 comment:

  1. I think a photo journal is an excellent idea, and whilst I have not kept one I can see just how much my work has progressed by what I used to post on Flickr to what I post now. I feel as if my work has come a very long way in just a couple of years, but this has been greatly helped by all the feedback and constructive criticism I have received online, all of which has spurred me on to improve.

    It's fascinating to see the early work of a photographer, and you did really well with this shot - thanks for sharing this post.

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