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ABOUT MY PHOTOGRAPHY: My first attempts at photography started while I was still attending college. I had always been fascinated by SLR cameras with thier sleek and technical looks yet had never had the chance to own one or even to use one. One day while browsing at a local pro camera shop I noticed a used pentax ME super body for sale for the low price of $300. I asked about lenses and the salesman told me a standard 50MM lens would set me back about $50 bucks. A few minutes later I was on my way out of the store with a new/used ME super with a new/used 50MM lens. Learning to use a nearly completely manual camera wasn't that bad of an experience for me since I seem to have a knack for things of a technical nature. I was cranking out well exposed photos within the first day of owning my shiney new outfit, however, I quickly learned there was more to a photo than just jamming the viewfinder to your eye and clicking the shutter release. For roughly the first year I was just churning out roll after roll of pure crap. Well exposed crap, but crap none the less. It was during this time I experimented with various film and techniques to see what the equipment was really capable of. I used everything from the old kodak 25 ISO for my landscape photos to the fancy dancy and amazing t-max 3200 for lots of hand held existing light stuff. Eventually I finished my courses and was back to my old job as an electronic tech, but I was still semi actively taking photos of various people/places/things. Shortly after I was back to work, I met a local pro photographer by the name of Leon Strembitsky(link). He is a really good guy and loves to talk about photography probably just as much as I do, so I ended up visiting him at his gallery quite often and shooting the breeze. Eventually we became quite good friends and I ended up spending some time in the dark room to see how things should be done. Needless to say, he taught me everything I know when it comes to light manipulation and general photography workflow which I am thankful for, his images are second to none. In fact, I invite you to click the link to his site above and check his work out for yourself. The move to digital for me started for me on a spur of the moment purchase. I happened across a consumer grade 2.1MP digicam and thought to myself "it's cheaper than film!". I bought it on the spot and from then on almost every photograph I have taken has been digital(I've owned 2 consumer digicams). The quality of digital was acceptable to me at the time and it really did turn out to be much cheaper than film. One thing I AM glad I did though was to start with actual film and to have learned from the best. It's all to easy to crank out 10,000 images of junk with a digicam. I learned long ago to not just take a photograph because you have a camera, instead take a photo because it's worth having. More recently, I have made a more serious investment into some higher end pro gear(some may dispute, but amateurs dont spend 3 grand on equipment) and bought myself a Nikon D-70 and a couple of lenses(I recently bought a nikon D200, I can say enough good things about it. It is everything the D70 is and everything the D70 isnt, including weather seals throughout the magnesium body.). This was most likely the best investment for my photography I have ever made. The D-70 is an incredible piece of hardware. It is really the only digital camera I have ever used that actually FEELS like a film camera. No menus to change settings just knobs and dials for the most part. This is in stark contrast to the consumer digicams where for the most part, if you want real control, you need to have the manual with you at all times just so you can figure out how to hold the damn shutter open for 10 seconds at F4. I did manage to do some decent existing light work with both of the consumer digicams I own, but the level of control was just not there like it is with my new outfit. It truly is a wonderous time to be a photographer. These days, most of my time involving photograpy is spent on the computer in the "digital darkroom" as they call it. Leon taught me that lots of long and hard darkroom work usually precedes a great photograph. Amazingly, the better I get at photo manipulation the more photos I manage to salvage out of my gigs and gigs of image archives. Again, a truly amazing time in which to be a photographer. MY STYLE: Every photographer has a certain style and a way of doing things. I am no different in this aspect. You will notice that I very rarely exibit more than one photograph of scene. This reflects my philosophy of making quality over quantity. Especially when it comes to portraiture for weddings. Many people are sort of taken aback by the fact that when I hand them the final photographs, there just aren't very many compared to how many I may have taken at the event. What these people don't realize is the HUGE quantity of work it takes to produce stunning images like these. It is not just a fact of taking a photograph and then printing. Each photograph that I consider finished and am willing to give to someone usually has at bare minimum three to four hours of time into it. This time is spent post shoot working on the overall image as well as the finer details like spotting, etc. If you ask me to photograph something, you will get a very small quantity of exceptional photographs. Some photographers know that since most clients are not photographers themselves, they won't really be bothered my miniscule imperfections or even major ones in some cases. While this is true most of the time, I just can't bring myself to sign my name to a photograph that I don't find extraordinary. A BIT ABOUT MY PERSONAL LIFE: What can I say, im blessed with a great family and the best life partner anyone could ever ask for. I live in the country, have 2 cats, no dogs. Unfortunately there isn't much to say about my personal life these days since my health is quite poor and for the most part keeps me confined to my home. I was finally diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome after battling my way through the medical system to get some help for my condition. Chronic Fatigue Syndrom, or CFS as it is know, is a debilitating illness that causes extreme fatigue and pain in large enough amounts that most sufferers, myself included, are occasionally completely bedridden and almost always house ridden due to the severity of the symptoms. Sadly, CFS has also destroyed my memory and general mental faculties which is really quite a bummer for me since before I fell ill I was a senior programmer for a very successful software company and also a very successful businessman outside of my regular day job selling my own products which I both wrote the software for and designed and built the hardware for. These days my memory is shot and merely making it out of the house is really quite a big deal for me. It is a shame that I have had to give up most of my former activities, however, I still manage to take the odd photograph and every once in a while manage to get it on paper. Even suffering through it all, those few images that I get done from time to time still make all the effort worth it. Thats the nice thing about photography, it's not really a full contact sort of sport and is non demanding physically. Remember, no matter how bad things are, they could always be worse and there is always something to be thankful for.

	ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT, COLIN FRASER,2009