mmayes' photostream  

Web guy by day, jazz drummer by night. Always loved taking pictures, and am glad to have Flickr for sharing and inspiration.

If you wish to use my pictures for any reason, please just contact me beforehand.

In August '07 I went on honeymoon, which rekindled my love of photography. Upon returning, I purchased my first DSLR and have been rather obsessed with picture taking since.

I'm currently reading 2 extremely helpful photography-learning books:

1. Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson is a must for any budding photography for getting off the program and into manual shooting. His book has a friendly, easy going swagger that's very enjoyable.

2. The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman. Michael shoots for things like National Geographic. The book reads a bit more like a text book than Bryan's, but it's full of useful insight into the principles that go into composing top-notch photos.

I also enjoy the following photo gallery-style books:

1. The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski . John's 6 page essay is alone worth the price of admission - there's one paragraph in particular that I read over and over. That said, the B/W pictures are amazing - selections from a landmark exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in 1964. It was out of print for awhile, get it while you can.

I just checked out John's Looking at Photographs from the library. This book is currently out of print, but contains a wealth of information on photography. Each picture in the book has a 1 page essay by John, describing what's behind the picture and why it matters.

Gear:

Canon 40D - new, and loving it.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens - My first, but not last, prime lens. Can't beat the price.
Quantaray 18-200mm 3.5-6.3 lens - An excellent all around lens.

Sigma 30mm f1.4