About wickenden / Don LaVange  

Contact: Don LaVange donlavange@gmail.com or wickenden@gmail.com

Something about my idea about photography

I've always been facinated. My first camera was a Nikkorex with a fixed (screwed) lens I got in a pawn shop. My father bought me an AE-1 when I turned 21. I lost it in my 30's and returned to photography with a half-hearted attempt when I bought a Ricoh-XRP. I wanted that match needle exposure indicator, I thought the FTb the highest design.

But, film... and processing. And, I'm a klutz in the darkroom, with messy chemicals and my fat fingering and forgetting.

When digital came, it was a 2.2 megapixel toshiba, followed by a Nikon Coopix 5700, followed by a D-70, and currently a D-200. I use Photoshop CS3, and Lightroom 1.3. I process the bulk in Lightroom and the few in CS3.

For lenses, I tend to use the 50 mm and the 70-300 zoom. I've given the d70 and the kit lens away, and have a 110 macro that I never use now that I have the bigger zoom.

I dislike set shots. If you see something of mine that looks set up, I'm either in "learning" mode, where it's essential to get it through my thick head, or I'm being coerced by loved ones.

I like people, doing what they do. If wish I knew how to put people at ease and do this all the time. I try to take every shot where I'm passing and suddenly I see something that is beautiful, the way the light works, the way the scene jumps at me. I tend to think of "it" as the photograph, that image I perceive, and work to "get" it.

I think it is interesting that some of my favorite images were taken accidently, or a long time ago and with very bad equipment.

So, I'm trying.

I do documentary, photojournalistic, and "street" style. My streets are "suburban".

I have three flickr accounts that I maintain:
www.flickr.com/people/wickenden
www.flickr.com/people/donlavange
www.flickr.com/people/ethics
(the last one is where I post images I take for one part of my work).