Reminded Why I Blog

This week I received two messages and questions based on the photographs they have seen from my blog. I started the blog a couple years ago as a way to show my photos beyond the limitations of the print newspaper. Over the years it has changed as my workload has increased. I realized that still this blog continues to share my stories. Since the beginning of this year I have not maintained the online presence, and thus the stories I have covered have not been shared. So, I'll again give it a reboot and hopefully continue to make time for postings. I'm not saying this is going to be easy, but the two moments I had this week encourages me to move forward with it.

In Absence Too Long

I'm not usually tardy and never absent, but for the last couple months this blog has been vacant. I'd like to say that starting graduate school at the Academy of Art for an MFA in photography made me stop, but the truth is I probably could have kept it updated a little bit more. Yes it is true graduate school has completely consumed my life. But as this year winds down, I think it only appropriate to have a New Year's resolution to be to get back to blogging. Hopefully I will continue throughout the year.

On Vacation!

I know I don't make posts all the time here, but for the next two weeks, I won't even be thinking about the Internet. I will be taking some much enjoyed vacation. I plan to come back in August. My first week back might be a little difficult to getting back in the groove. I hopefully will be able to get a nice refresh and come back to some exciting news. The fire season will probably be starting to get warmer and my only wish is for news to just take it easy while I'm gone. I hate missing the big stories. Although, my track record is for something unusual to happen while I'm gone. Although I did think to myself that something unusual happens everyday, so obviously it is bound to happen while I'm gone. Until then I hope to find some cooler weather. See you in August!

What is a Pixelographer?

I do consider myself a professional photographer. I mean I do make all of my income from shooting images that are printed in a newspaper. I have been doing this for over half a decade. (That sounds a little more impressive that 6 years). But why not be called just a photographer.

Well let me explain. I first and foremost relate myself to being someone who creates photographs that specializes in journalism photography. That would refer me most to being a photojournalist. However, I do not only have a concentration in a documentary style. I shoot anything I see. Weddings, portraits, landscapes, strobe, underwater, nature, animal, sports, news, features, experimental, and creative photography are all categories that I have developed skills in. You see it, I can photograph it. This extends my concentration in photojournalism more wide spread to being that of a more encompassing photographer. So why is it not ProPhotographer.blogspot.com?

With the digital photography reaching mass markets, it changed the way photography was looked at. Photography was the process and reaction of chemicals to light, thus creating photographs. These pictures were a tangible artifact of history.

Take it from the literal meaning of photography is "Writing (graphy) with light (photo)".

"Everything is the past, unless it is recorded; then it becomes History"

Or better explained by Ansel Adams as "Only the print contains the artist's meaning and message."

With digital photography, there are so many pictures taken and so little actually are published. A lot of my work is published, yet there is so much more that is stored in the digital space of hard drives and DVDs. These images I intend to showcase online. There will probably be ones that have been published as well. I do not feel that these images should be considered appropriately called a "photograph". From a digital perspective, this would make me someone who should not be considered a photographer at all, being that these images are primarily digital and not photographic. Therefore the name "Pixelographer" was created. It was meant to mean "writing with pixels", which is a pretty good definition for this blog. And besides it is easier to bookmark than:

http://www.photographerduringhisdayjobthathedoesprimarilyphotojournalismbecausehepublisheshistorybutcanactuallybeconsideredafullfledgedphotographerfromhisextensiveskillsinotherformsofphotographybutwouldratherbecalledapixelographerwhichisawordhemadeuptofeelcreativeandalittledifferentthateverybodyelsewhogotacamerathatisjustlikehisorbetterthanhismakinghisappealsbethatmuchgreaterwhichisablessingisdisguesethathopefullyotherswithfindhumorousandallowhistounderstandwhysomeonewouldcontinuereadingtheselongdrawnoutweblinkforaguywhocallshimselfapixelographer.blogspot.com/

Yeah, I think I'll keep it short.

A New Year and a New Blog!

So it begins. I figure it is about time that I start writing my thoughts. Is it the idea to better myself as a journalist or to catalog my adventures for the rest of the world. I don't quite know, but I figure a New Year is a good time to start. I have had this idea of starting a blog about 8 months ago, but was always too busy. Then I had a intense fire season, travels across the country to witness history and was part of a major opportunities in my career. Now I wish I would have started it that long ago. But as the press well knows, news becomes old fast. So this wishing of yester-year will become old soon and hopefully 2009 will be filled with many adventures too. This blog is intended to be an ongoing journal of my photographing career. It will start with simple posts about me and who I am. As it grows, I hope it will evolve into something I cannot plan. We will just have to wait and see what the camera focuses on.