Mr. Winters I want to be a photographer

1/200s
F/10
ISO 200
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Who wants to be a photographer?
I knew that being a photo journalist for National Geographic would be my dream job, however I ended up being a day dreaming systems technician.  In the grand scheme of things I shot a little to the right but I have to blame myself. I was afraid that pursuing a career that involved creativity might be beyond my capabilities and that I should put effort into something more "practical". (Note to self never sell yourself short, most importantly to yourself) I would much rather be a poor starving photographer, as a posed to a poor starving systems technician. The chance to travel to distant lands, and see first hand the wonders of the world. The opportunity to see people live their lives in different countries experiencing culture first hand, new adventures everyday good and bad. I wanted to witness and record them with a camera and at that time I did not care what I had. Leica, Nikon, Canon, Pentax or even a disposable just as long as I had a camera by my side.  I am willing to do what ever it takes to be the best.  This requires work, work that I want and willing to do.  One of the reasons I started this blog was to promote my work and keep myself taking pictures everyday for new and original content.  My hope for what I'm putting out is for somebody with that same dream to take the plunge and share their experiences with others.

Who here found the artist that inspired them and sent them an email or letter?
Guilty once again!
An amazing photographer by the name of Dan Winters inspired me to work hard, and push myself to create everyday, and to keep pushing never settling for average. When I first saw his photography I was in love he has the ability to see past a persons physical appearance and.... "Now this might sound like a cliché but he captures their emotions, thoughts, joy, and fears". We see actors one way but by viewing his work you no longer see an actor you see a man or women that you can relate to. Someone with vulnerabilities, and when I continued to look through his catalog, I knew I wanted to capture this type of honesty as well. I recomend you go to his site and look at his work, I think you will find a new artist that inspires you.  I found this amazing article in which he is interviewed for a little Q&A Dan Winters interview is done in three parts, and is a must read.

I sent him an email explaining who I was and that I really enjoyed looking at his art.  I told him that his photography moved me into becoming a better photographer and that one day he would see my work out there in the world.  I was... well still am a little confident.  I also sent him a picture that I thought he would enjoy.  This picture here is what I sent.  One week later he replied to me and told me to keep up the good work and that I had done a very good job with my photograph, I wish I could find the email, but I think I accidentally deleted it I can't find it anywhere.  Yes I am VERY mad at myself.  Anyway its not the end of the world, he was probably being polite but it encourages me to work hard and take risks.

An email that hit hard

I received an email from a good friend that had recently read Photo-logic. I was extremely nervous to hear her thoughts on it because she's in my top 5 list of amazing writers. I knew she would not sugar coat it, NOT one bit. After I read her email my first impression was WTF except I was quite loud with the obcenity, as a matter of fact I had to read it a few times just to make sure I was not miss reading anything. Who is this writer that had me sitting on pins and needles? Please allow me to tell you.
Courtney Perkes is a phenomenal writer for The Orenge County Register and probably the most honest person out there. We first met in Austin during SXSW and spent the entire day listening to moving music, drinking cold beer, watching interesting documentries, and eating the best vegitarian pizza. I had the honor of meeting her sister and brother as well both fantastic and interesting people.
When I first started writing I shared a very personal story with another professional writer. She gave it back to me with so much red ink on it that I no longer recognised it. My first thought was "Did I just get an F" Fortunatly for her we were in the middle of a coffee shop but if we had not been I probably would have told her off. I swore then and there I would never let someone critique my work. (That lasted about 3 months) So I ask Courtney to read my blog and provide me a little feed back of my new creation. Her reply is "I'll email you later" trust me this was not what I wanted to hear from her. I was preparing for the worst possible review, (note to self let's be positive) anyway worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair it gives you something to do but you don't get anywhere by doing it.
I'm posting a copy of her email below, no changes have been made to it you can ask her if you don't believe me.

Hi James,
I had no idea you were a talented writer as well as photographer. Your blog entries are fun, personal and relatable. The water at the river walk looks like glass. How did you take the photo? Court

I never answered her question so I thought it would be appropriate on this post. In my post "Someone to watch over us" I wanted to keep a low ISO (the sensors sensitivity) or you could think of it as the sensitivity of the film, now because of this I was going to need a long exposure. I left the shutter open for 30 seconds so any movement from the water blurred in the picture. Giving the water in the picture a glassy look, it also helped that there was no wind that day. To show another example of this, stay tuned because I'll be posting another picture that needed a long exposure giving the ocean a unique look. I want to thank everyone for being patient with me, soon I'll be home and be able to upload some amazing pictures for you. Keep looking or you can add this site to your reader and you will be notified of my next post.

All apologies!

I wanted to apologies for missing my deadline this last Thursday.  I have been  traveling and was a victim of procrastination.  My excuses is my iPad is not the best for typing long post such as a blog and maybe for Christmas I will get a Bluetooth keyboard.  So yeah... Spoiled and worried about carpal tunnel syndrome (not even sure if I spelled it correctly.) One interesting thing I have noticed is that while not having another option ie a desktop or laptop, I have become quite handy with this guy and have been "tweeting" a lot more.  Come check me out @whi5k3y.  (shameless advertisement )
Bad news I will be down here for another week. :( I know not the news you were hoping to hear but...  I'll be here updating from my iPad any and all interesting news.  I know this is a photo blog but since I'm on my iPad the pictures might be a little less then stellar. Interesting news I broke my blog while playing with the HTML I broke the background and some of the side bar tools... And I will admit I'm not 1337 enough to fix it from the iPad, but please feel free to help me correct it throw some advice my way via a comment.  I welcome any help I can get.  In other news I started a 500px account that I am very happy with and was able to change my name to whi5key, so yeah check out my work there if you have a minute to burn.
Goodnight guys from a Holiday inn express

Uploading a picture with the pad is not so hot, I can use a URL from one of my social sites but the process is being a jerk. So I'm sorry to say no photo until I figure a few shortcuts around its limitations.