jimsmith72's photostream

Jim Smith began his interest in photography at the age of 12.
"My mother and I went on a trip from Canada to California and my grandmother gave me a 110mm camera. Although I returned from the trip with only one souvenir, a jacket, I was more excited to develop the over a dozen "rolls" I had shot. And thus began the obession with photography. It was the around that same time that I became involved with recording moving images.
"I remember when my Mother came home with the first video camera. The thing was gargantuan! It was a dual box, one that had the channel changer, then the one that held the tape, and a huge video camera. The camera would be sitting atop my shoulder, then I would have the Recorder over my shoulder in the carrying case. I was like 12 or 13 and it weighed a ton!"

While attending High School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan he enrolled in Grpahic Arts. It is during the next three years that he learned all aspects of film photography (this was the late 80's).
"I learned how to take pictures, making sure to use the best settings for the situation. I also learned how to develop my negatives and then create images in the darkroom. I would make contact sheets and then dodge, screen, overlay, or burn my images as required. It was a great experience which really helped me when shooting my images."

For many years Jim was limited to inexpensive cameras, but never was shy at taking pictures. "I have always been the one with either the still camera or the video camera, or both."

In 1999 while stationed in Okinawa, Japan with the Marines he bought his first digital camera.
"I was the first person I knew who had a digital camera. It cost me a few hundred dollars and was a glutton when it came to battery consumption. It was an Olympus and I believe it was 1.2MP! It was great having it in the Marines though. Most people around used disposable cameras, but not me. Although, I was one of the only Marines with a computer so sharing the pictures was not an option."

Since that time 10 years ago, Jim has advanced his Digital Cameras progressively. Although he always loved the Canon he had back in the 80's while attending school, he leaned toward the Sony brand when it came to digital cameras.
"The Olympus was the only non-Sony digital camera I have owned. Since then it has always been a sony. In the years since 1999 and my first Olympus I have owned 6 sony digital camera with my current one being an A200. I am ready to upgrade, but the camera is not ready to retire, so I wait!"

Back in 2001 while stationed in Yuma, Arizona Jim took a Digital Photography class and thus began his career with Photoshop and other Adobe products.
"When I was stationed in Yuma, I decided to take a class in Digital Photogrpahy at the community college. At this time I had heard about Photoshop but had never used it. This class was all about Photoshop and not about photography at all, other than the manipulation of digital photos. The teacher just taught us how to tweak, regardless if it was a scan or photo from the digital camera. I was a little bummed at first, but then I just fell in love with Photoshop (at the time v.5) and the rest they say, is history!"