sperophotography's photostream  

Spero:

1. To hope (something desirable), to look for, trust, expect.

2. To look for, expect; of good things, (to hope, hope for); of bad, (to anticipate, forebode).

Someone left this as comment to one of my photos once. This was the best compliment I ever recieved:
"the land of laughs is lit by eyes that see the lights that no one else can see"

I am also here:
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=508927522&ref=profile

I also have two blogs where you will find bits of fiction, thoughts, this, and that ... I'm still working out what it will be exactly and which of these spaces I like better:
sperophotography.wordpress.com/

sperophotography.blogspot.com/


I was born, raised, and still live in Milwaukee, though wanderlust abides strongly in me. I am a librarian by vocation, but when I was a kid I wanted to be either Carl Sagan or Nancy Wilson (of the rock band Heart) when I grew up. Unfortunately, those notions did not pan out. My math and science education was spotty at best and it was during my high school years that I was given a choice between arts school for music or an alternative school for writing and an early graduation. I chose the latter. Music still plays (so to speak) a large part in my life, but only as a listener these days. I still write a little bit, but the path I chose lead to a visual communications program. It was in this program when I was given a slightly damaged Nikon I suspect either “fell off the truck” or was gained in lieu of a debt. However, at the time, my eighteen-year-old self had a stronger desire to be out in the world than to buckle down on my studies, i.e., I wanted to go out and have fun. Once I had my fun and realized that a career in waitressing and bartending wasn’t what I wanted, I returned to school and earned master’s degrees in history and library science. It was during this time that I met someone who wrangled an employee discount on a point-and-shoot Rollei from the wholesaler for which she worked. With that, photography really became another avenue of artistic expression and way of seeing the world. I started to re-learn things from my first college stint, begun to learn new things, made the inevitable move to digital, and the rest of the time I just flew by the seat of my pants.

My photography doesn’t fit neatly into a single category like nature or portrait photography. While it does fulfil an artistic need, its primary function for me is to serve as a document -- a visual autobiography or diary – that I happen to share with anyone who cares to look through my particular eye for detail. If I can capture something that is ephemeral in its nature or something that would normally fly right by most, I am pleased. When I find the abstract in the concrete world or an imaginary world living within the world of the mundane, I am happy. The one thing that does figure heavily in my work is water. The obvious explanation for its presence would be my close physical proximity to Lake Michigan, but it is more than likely that it has more to do with the contravening notions of desiring/needing to live close to a body of water and a fear being submerged in water. The other thing that figures prominently is my compulsion to continually return to the same place or subject over periods that can last years.

Practically, I like to travel light, so I try to keep it simple with my camera equipment -- meaning nothing more than what I can carry in one small camera bag or slip into my purse. I currently alternate between two digital cameras -- an Olympus E3 and a Canon Powershot A650. I prefer to use only available light and I rarely ever attempt to manipulate my surroundings to make a picture, but flying in the face of my “keep it simple, stupid” approach, I will from time to time put an image through the Photoshop wringer if that’s what I think the image needs.



The world is a rose, smell it and pass it to your friends.
~~Persian Proverb

Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.
~~Groucho Marx

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