Tommy Donovan's photostream  

A LITTLE BACKGROUND

I’ve been an avid [amateur] photographer since my junior year of high school—thanks to my one semester of photography (taught by Ed Surek at Rancho Alamitos in Garden Grove, California). Back then it was bare-bones, old school photography—shooting 35MM in black-and-white where we developed and processed our own prints in the darkroom. I only have one original print remaining from that time and it’s of Melinda Ramirez—who I’ve wondered about every time I’ve come across it. That was the spring of 1996.

Most of my pictures here originated from the use of my first digital—a Pentax Optio 430RS. It was a given to me as a thank-you gift by a former client back in the days when I did website design professionally. Others are old family photographs that I scanned and slowly uploaded. Once in a great moon I’ll add some that were taken by others—which most likely has me in it (but I do give the credit).

Since late 2006 I’ve been using a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2 that I had purchased in Orange. The bulk of my pictures, since creating this account in early 2005, were taken in Southern California—where I’m from. Orange County (Anaheim, Garden Grove) to be exact!

I tend to take a lot of macro shots, mostly of nature (flora and fauna). I also like to capture select aircraft that may fly directly overhead (the Cyber-shot has been very good for that).

Once in a great while I’ll test out various landscape/cityscape shots by combing them in panoramic form. I’ve also been known to photograph various public and entertainment events (singer Lisa Loeb being one, as she, and especially her manager, have been friends of mine).

Another variety of media that you will occasionally see will be a small number of videos and a selection of some of my digital art (cartooning and other graphics media--- all created my me).

So since moving to the Phoenix metro area in March of 2008—it’s presented new opportunities to take pictures of places and things I normally wouldn’t see back at home. I was never much of a beach person—so that’s one challenge in Arizona if I ever opted for water based shots.