manmadepants' photostream

"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it."

Hi everyone! My name is Tony. I live in Los Angeles, California and I am definitely not a pro. But I do feel like I've got a decent eye for the picture and I've loved taking pictures my entire life.

I moved out to LA from Pennsylvania about three years ago to pursue a career in film/TV production but ended up working for a non-profit only to find it infinitely more satisfying and rewarding. Although, the pay isn't very good. But it wasn't that good in production either, so I kind of break even.

I've found LA to be filled with millions of images waiting to be taken. From beautiful homes to gritty streets, I could literally shoot for hours and only have seen a fraction of what there is to see. And as long as I'm here I will continue to shoot what I find interesting.

I guess my style would fall under the photo journalistic umbrella. I don't really like set ups. I'd rather just capture life as it happens. I think there is enough humor, drama, irony, etc to capture in the real world that I don't feel the need to recreate it in a studio. I did enough of that in production. I've always been a bit shy shooting people which is why, in most of my shots with people in them, they aren't looking directly at the camera. They're usually part of the background. And further, that's why most of my shots don't have people in them.

So my goal for the time being is to work on approaching people and incorporating them into my photos as the primary subjects. I've noticed that other peoples pictures that I'm drawn to most are ones with some sort of life in them (human life, that is.)

Up until about a month ago my primary camera was a Canon SD 800IS. And as far as point and shoots go, I love that camera. I am now shooting on a Nikon D40X Digital SLR which I find more challenging but ultimately the photos are more rewarding. I edit them in Iphoto, Capture NX and Photoshop CS3.

I hope everyone take the time to enjoy some of my photos and please leave lots of comments. Good, bad and ugly.

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